Successful day at the Cross-Country SAC Championships for Greer, Strayer and O'Neill
SPARTANBURG, South Carolina – Luke Greer, Rachel Strayer and Kathie O'Neill showed up and showed out at the South Atlantic Conference Championships Saturday morning earning all earning All-Conference honors.
SPARTANBURG, South Carolina – Luke Greer, Rachel Strayer and Kathie O'Neill showed up and showed out at the South Atlantic Conference Championships Saturday morning earning all earning All-Conference honors.
Luke Greer (Abington, Northampton, United Kingdom) made his fourth top ten finish of the season coming in second behind Queens' Daniel Wallis with a time of 24:42. With that time and finish he earned the All-Conference honor.
"Being All-Conference is a great achievement that I'm looking to build on!" Greer said. "Major credit to Coach Phillips for getting me to this point."
To start out the season Greer impressively won the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational after an injury ridden summer. At the following two Queens events he came in 7th at the Queens City Invite and moved up to 5th two weeks later at the Royals challenge.
"Luke finishing second in the SAC is an incredible accomplishment for that young man as the competition is stiff." Coach Eric Phillips said of the senior. "Coach Scott over at Queens has done a phenomenal job with his student-athletes and we knew it would be a hallenge going into it. When there are so many talented runners in a race, only one person can win it. Luke ran with the intent to win and left it all on the course. I couldn't be more proud with our efforts today."
Along with Greer, the standout freshman for the Eagles on the women's side, Rachel Strayer, won her own honor. Being the first freshman out of twenty-three to cross the finish line, this earned her the Freshman of the Year award along with First Team All-Conference. Strayer came in 6thplace overall with a time of 22:29.
"It was an honor to receive Freshman of the Year." Strayer said. "I definitely wouldn't be able to achieve these things without the mounds of support that comes from my teammates and coaches!"
Strayer has had a solid debut as a collegiate runner finishing 13thin her very first race at the college level at the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational. Following that she finished 24that the Queens City Invite and 31stat the Royals Challenge clinching a school record the second time around at the event hosted by Queens.
Kathie O'Neill (Sevierville, Tenn.), who has run as a redshirt the entire season, finally got the go ahead to put back on the uniform and run for it to count during the championship. She ended up finishing in 11th place earning her the Second Team All-Conference honor.
"Rachel Strayer was our big first punch today." Coach Phillips said of her performance. "Taking down the 6k school record in her first attempt today while finishing 6th overall and as the #1 freshman in the entire conference is an incredible feat and a testament to the work that we've put in and getting Kathie back in uniform was a complete blessing."
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