LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- For the second
consecutive year, Trinity University's Derick Lawrence has been
selected Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC)
Coach-of-the-Year for both men's and women's cross country in
exclusive voting by the head coaches in the conference.
Both Trinity squads repeated as SCAC champions at the 2013
conference championship meets held November 2 at the at Clyde Fant
Course just outside the campus of Centenary College. Men's Results | Women's Results
The regionally-ranked Trinity men (seventh in the latest
South/Southeast USTFCCCA rankings) scored 28 points – just a
single point in front of Colorado College - at the 2013
championships. The previous closest men's race had been in
1997 when Rhodes College defeated Trinity by seven points
(47-54).
The Trinity men had six runners finish in the Top 10 while Colorado
College had four runners in the Top 10 including the top individual
performance coming from junior Nick Hall. Hall repeated as SCAC
Runner-of-the-Year for 2013 as he finished with a time of
25:44.1.
The 12th-ranked Trinity women's cross country team (ranked first
in the South/Southeast USTFCCA rankings) totaled a perfect score of
15 points for the second consecutive year to easily outpoint
second-place Colorado College at the 2013 conference cross country
championship meet. The perfect score was the second in SCAC
women’s cross country championship meet history and just the
third on either side. Only the 2005 DePauw men, which Lawrence was
also a member, had produced a score of 15 in SCAC championship meet
history prior to the Tigers’ back-to-back perfect
outings.
Maddie Murphy took medalist and 2013 SCAC Runner-of-the-Year honors
with a top finish of 22:02.4. Teammate Vanessa Moreno (2012 SCAC
Champion - 22:26.3) was second and Rosemary Steup (third -
22:41.5), Michelle Oberndorf (fourth - 22:47.1), and Jackie Newell
(fifth - 23:06.1) completed the top five finishers on the 6K
course.
Murphy was also Runner-of-the-Year in 2011.
Lawrence, who is in his second season at Trinity, is the first
coach to sweep both COTY honors in back-to-back seasons since
DePauw’s Kori Stoffregen pulled off the feat in 2005 and
2006.