Full Men's Results

Full Women's Results

By Taylor Throckmorton '12

MASON, Ohio - The 2014 cross country season came to a close with a pair of Gators wrapping up the 2014 campaign at the NCAA Division III Championships, hosted by Wilmington College at the Kings Island Golf Center.

In the day's opening race, junior Logan Steiner finished 75th, out of 275 runners, with a time of 25:07 in the 8K.  Senior Marisa Brown concluded her stellar senior season by finishing 226th in the women's 6K, clocked in 24:14.

After winning the NCAC championship and taking fourth at last weekend's Mideast Regional Championship, Steiner was looking to take home All-American honors by finishing in the top 35. 

 "Logan did exactly what he needed to in the first mile to put himself in a competitive spot" said head coach Brent Wilkerson.  "It was unfortunate that it just wasn't his day today, but he raced intelligently and put himself where he needed to be." 

Throughout the first half of the race, Steiner sat around 30th place and was looking to hold on to that spot but faded a bit in the final stages.  Steiner's time, however, was still very impressive and was his second fastest of the season, behind his stellar performance at the regional championship where he ran 25:05.  

"Marisa had one of the best seasons of cross country that any Gator woman has had in the last four years," Wilkerson said of Brown, who struggled through an injury-plagued junior campaign to become one of the top runners in the region. "The fact that she is now competing at a national level with the best runners in division III is a testament to the hard work that she has put in and is indicative of the culture on our women's team right now." 

With snow melting as temperatures rose throughout the day and thousands of feet chewing up the running surface, the course was in rough shape by the time the gun went off for the women's race.  Treacherous mud slowed down the times significantly, but Brown was able to hold her footing throughout the race, something that many of the runners could not claim.

Both Steiner and Brown are looking to build off of their cross country seasons as they head into the 2014-15 indoor track campaign.  Each will have a few weeks off for recovery before beginning to train for their season debuts in January.