Sophomore Josh Uzelac claimed his second-consecutive All-Conference honors while the John Brown University men's cross country team finished fourth and the women's team finished fifth at the Sooner Athletic Conference Championships, hosted by St. Gregory's (Okla.) at the Gordon Cooper Tech Center, on Saturday morning.
Since the program's reboot in 2008, Uzelac becomes the first player in program history to claim back-to-back All-Conference accolades. His time of 26 minutes, 8 seconds and 10th-place finish earned him the honors as the top 15 finishers to land on the All-Conference team.
The Golden Eagles registered a team time of 2:17:28, finishing just five minutes behind third-place finisher Wayland Baptist (Texas). Bacone (Okla.) claimed its first-ever SAC title after upending heavy favorite Oklahoma City by a mere 11 seconds. Bacone's Thomas Jackson claimed the individual title with a time of 24:45.
Sophomore Jacob Benjamin grabbed 18th with a time of 26:52, just missing on an All-Conference nomination while freshman Elliott Pearson turned in a time of 27:48 to finish 27th. Junior Justin Riffel stepped up and crossed the line at 28:08, nabbing the 34th slot while sophomore Michael Games registered a time of 28:31 to finish in 40th of 74 runners.
The ladies, meanwhile, ended the season in fifth place, led by sophomore Carly Coney's 20:27 time, earning her 22nd overall in the 66-runner field. Senior Abbie Melby finished her career with a 27th-place finish in a time of 20:42 while sophomore Reagan Roth crossed the line in 32nd place with a time of 21:08. Just 11 seconds behind Roth in 33rd place was junior Erin Haley while junior Kaitlyn Collier finished her junior campaign with a time of 21:23, placing 37th overall.
Oklahoma City easily captured the team title in a time of 1:30:16 behind Aminat Olowora's individual title-winning time of 16:33. Olowora finished over 80 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, OCU teammate Sara Moore. Wayland Baptist captured second place and Texas Wesleyan finished third. St. Gregory's (Okla.) edged JBU by four minutes as the Golden Eagles closed out the season with a team time of 1:44:54.
Sports on 11/09/2016