CHARLOTTE, N.C.- Queens University of Charlotte's men's cross country team played host and walked away with the overall team title at the Royal Cross Country Challenge, which became the largest athletic event the Royals have ever staged.
Michael Crouch (Yucca Valley, Calif., Yucca Valley) led Queens to a 66-point team score to best UNC-Greensboro (74), Georgia Tech (81) and Davidson (101) in the two-section, 35-team and 297-competitor meet.
Crouch posted a time of 24:17.0 for the 8,000-meter course, which ranks as the 9
th-fastest in course history. Contributing to the win for the #7 nationally ranked Royals was also
Simon Stuetzel (Meinborn, Germany) in 10
th at 24:54.8;
Colin Guillard (Pommerieux, France, Louis Cormontaigne Metz France) in 15
th at 25:03.6;
Felix Duchampt in 18
th at 25:08.4; and
Alexander Schilling (Dresden, Germany, Sportgymnasium ) in 22
nd at 25:19.1. Also competing for Queens was
Nelson Mwangi (Kenya, Nairobi School) who finished 39
th in 25:36.4 and
Stefan Liotchev (Durham, N.C., Riverside) in 158
th at 27:52.7. The squads average team time was 24:56.4. Columbus State's Meshack Koyiaki was the individual champion in 24:12.0, while five men posted top-25 all-time marks for the McAlpine Creek Park course.
“To walk away with the win today really shows our continued progression,” said coach Scott Simmons. “We approached the race as a workout, starting out slowly and moving up mile by mile. Even so, we had several personal bests and, as a team, ran very close together.”
The Royals will be off for the next two weeks but will again be the host when they stage the Conference Carolina's championships on November 5th.
