2016 G-MAC Championship Program (PDF)
2016 G-MAC XC Men's & Women's Performance List (PDF)
Official G-MAC XC Championships Page
INDIANAPOLIS – The first Great Midwest Athletic Conference championship of the fall and 2016-17 academic year is coming to Canton, Ohio, this weekend as the league’s cross country runners take center stage on the campus of Malone University.
All eight women’s teams and a total of seven men’s programs will race on Saturday. This is Malone’s first year as a conference member institution and the Pioneers, led by 50-year head coach Jack Hazen, will host their first G-MAC event.
The women’s 6K race will start at 10:30 a.m. EST while the men’s 8K race will follow around 11:30 a.m. EST. The awards ceremony with G-MAC runners of the year, freshmen of the year and coaches of the year, along with all-conference performers recognized, will conclude the event. A total of 86 runners have been entered into each race.
For the first time, a banquet will be conducted for the student-athletes on Friday evening with the head coaches getting an opportunity to speak about their seasons to date. The guest speaker will be accomplished Malone alum Tony Migliozzi, who won the World Championship 50K race in Qatar this past summer.
The conference meet is a tune-up for the NCAA DII Midwest Regional before potentially qualifying for the NCAA Division II Championships held this year in Saint Leo, FL.
A live results link can be followed by clicking
here. Results initially posted are considered unofficial until confirmed.
The conference has yet to see a champion in crowned other than Cedarville University (in either men or women) and the Yellow Jackets’ running four-year reign speaks for itself. The men’s torch has been passed from CU standouts like Matt Brooker, to Benjamin Tuttle and the next one up may just be junior Daniel Michalski.
Michalski owns the league’s best 5K and second-best 8K time this year and has veteran experience at the top with Wyatt Hartman and Matt Pelletier alongside.
One notable name absent from the men’s entry list is Trevecca Nazarene’s Logan Rodgers; he was last year’s conference meet runner-up. The Trojans still feature two runners with top 10 8K times with Ben Moroney and Brandon Laws.
Other 2016 G-MAC Athletes of the Week will look to make their presence felt, including a pair of really talented Davis & Elkins freshmen, David Magda and Hayden Harrison. The Senators have flourished under the first-year leadership of head coach Jason Pyles and based on their body of work, D&E is ready to contend for the team title now.
Magda is a two-time weekly award conference winner and owns the best 8K time. Malone’s George McCartney has earned the same honors while Ohio Valley freshman Alex Kitony went out and posted the fourth-best 8K time of the year in his last effort at the #JennaStrong Invitational. Kitony has also won the Bethany Invitational and the Patty Forgey Invitational.
The women’s race features two nationally-ranked teams with No. 6 Cedarville and No. 18 Malone. The Yellow Jackets and Pioneers have steadily been ranked throughout the course of the season.
Two-time G-MAC Runner of the Year Caroline Hampton will look to make it three straight after qualifying for the NCAA Championships as a sophomore. Hampton’s list of awards in both cross country and track and field continue to grow and she has earned the right to be the presumed favorite heading into Saturday.
TNU’s Biz Mclendon was the conference athlete of the week following the Trojans’ hosted DII Showcase and Ohio Valley’s Lily Parsons most recently claimed G-MAC weekly honors.
But watch out for Cedarville’s Olivia Esbenshade, Carsyn Koch, Kayla Casaletto, Hailey Blackwell, Olivia Kundo, Alaina Spears and a host of other Yellow Jacket standouts. By committee, Cedarville’s women have been dominant in a pack style as evidenced by the mirroring times clocked throughout the season.
The Yellow Jackets officially own nine of the league’s best top-10 6K times recorded this year.
Malone is anchored by junior NCAA All-American Hannah Campbell, who earned the Pioneers’ first-ever weekly conference honor in the sport. Teammate Jade Smith had a strong showing at the All-Ohio Championship.
Both 2015 G-MAC Freshmen of the Year, Logan Ayers (Kentucky Wesleyan) and Taylor Treadway (Alderson Broaddus) are also in the field.
All teams around the G-MAC have made their own respective strides and after taking on the rugged terrain in West Virginia last year, it will be interesting to see how the team scores unfold on Malone’s course.
Fans can follow the G-MAC’s official Twitter and Instagram feeds (@greatmidwestac) for coverage on social media. Team pictures from the banquet and different graphics for each individual all-conference runner will be published.