LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - In exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, Trinity University's Emily Daum was named SCAC Men's Cross Country Coach-of-the-Year.
In just her second year leading the Trinity cross country program, the SCAC Coach-of-the-Year honor is the first for Daum. Additionally, she is only the second different Trinity coach to earn SCAC Men's Cross Country COTY honors and the first since Derick Lawrence received the award in back-to-back seasons in 2012 and 2013.
A year after losing its crown to Colorado College, Trinity University rebounded with one of the best finishes in SCAC men's cross country history, posting just the second perfect score (15) in the history of the meet and the first since 2005, and earned the program's third SCAC men's cross country title in four years. The Tigers were led by 2015 Men's Runner-of-the-Year Taylor Piske, who won the individual title with a 27:37.8. After two straight runner-up finishes in the event, Piske broke through to become the school's first individual champion since Thomas Pillow won the third of his ROTY titles in 1999. Team Results | Individual Results
Sophomore Michael Erickson (27:52.5), freshman Oliver Langselius (28:04.6), senior Austin Brown (28:09.0) and sophomore Jacob Hammond (28:19.0) completed the historic finish by placing second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively - matching DePauw University's feat of perfection a decade ago. Langselius was also named SCAC's Men's Newcomer-of-the-Year for his conference-best finish among first-year runners.
The Texas Tigers had four other runners earn All-SCAC honors. Freshman Brian Wongchotigul was ninth (29:20.7), sophomore Daniel Henkes was 11th (29:29.8), freshman Elliot Blake was 12th and senior Chris Soto placed 13th (29:39.1). The Tigers' nine all-SCAC selections also established a new conference championship meet record for honorees at a single championship. The old mark had been eight, which Trinity posted in 2012.
Two weeks later, the Trinity men narrowly missed a spot in the national championship meet with a third-place finish at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional. The Tigers finished with 100 team points - just three points behind second-place Christopher Newport University. Piske finished in a time of 26:06.7 and earned both all-Region recognition and an individual berth in next weekend's NCAA championships meet his finishing time of 26:01.29. Langselius finished in seventh with a time of 26:09.0 and, in addition to earning all-Region honors, will join Piske in Winneconne, Wisc., at the 2015 NCAA Division III championship meet.
