SEWANEE, Tenn. – Amidst the fall breeze and verdant trees of Sewanee's Conference course, the Trinity Tigers took home a suite of honors. Taking on a course that made Cardiac Hill look like a mole hill, Trinity made good on their projected success, and as the awards ceremony began it was a jubilant squad that stood to receive a plethora of plaques.
The first step towards success was taken by the women's team at 10:00, heading deep into the woods to start their race. While out of sight of spectators, the Tigers went to task. They led from wire to wire, coming through the first split with 29 points and finishing with only 19. The impressive performance was headed by
Anne Snider (Waco, Texas / Live Oak Classical), who would come away as the overall women's champion and SAA Athlete of the year, putting in a surge during the last kilometer to put 6 seconds on the second place finisher to finish in 21:55. Following her was
Gianna Keena (Laweway, Texas / Lake Travis), the senior placing third in a time of 22:42. Following her was
Emerson Voldan (Arlington, Texas / Mansfield Summit) in 22:55,
Sophie Munoz in 23:22 (Austin, Texas / Austin),
Bojana Rutkovszky (Austin, Texas / Anderson) in 23:24. Rutkovszky managed to set a season best by 15 seconds to score for the first time for the Tigers and take home the SAA Newcomer of the Year Award on the women's side. Trinity also won coaching staff of the year, to complete the sweep of honors, on top of placing 9 runners within the top 15, those 9 receiving SAA All-Conference Awards.
The success would continue on the men's side as they retained their Cross Country crown. Led by
Eli Bliss's (Garden Ridge, Texas / Davenport) 26:02, which placed him 4th, the Tigers scored 40 points to Centre's 65, as they cut through opponents during the back half of the race. Close behind Bliss was
Layton Carlisle (Houston, Texas / Bridgeland) in a time of 26:04, claiming the title of SAA Newcomer of the Year on the men's side. Following them would be
Nicolas Hutchinson (Houston, Texas / Westside) in 26:29 and
George Mikhael (Livermore, Calif. / Granada) in 26:43 to place 4 Trinity men in the top 10. Soon after came
Brady Piefer (Odessa, Fla. / Steinbrenner) and
Kyle Fix (Wilmette, Illinois / New Trier) to round out the All-Conference Honors. Trinity's coaching staff would win Staff of the Year for the men's side as well, completing their sweep.
Between the two teams, the Tigers would take home 2 Conference Championships, 2 SAA Newcomer of the Year Awards, 2 Coaching Staff of the Year award, SAA Runner of the Year on the women's side and 15 of the 30 total All-Conference spots. Coming off their hardware studded weekend, the Tigers will be looking to the Regionals race in Spokane, Washington on the 14th of November, on what will be their final test before a potential nationals berth.
