 |  |
Perfection realized: Shorter wins SSAC title with 15 points
GULFPORT, Miss. - Perfection is a goal rarely attained in sports. In many sports, a perfect performance is often difficult to measure.
In cross country, perfection exists. Just ask Shorter University's men's harriers.
The Hawks, ranked No. 17 in the NAIA Top 25 Poll, earned a chance to improve that ranking on the national stage by winning the 2010 Southern States Athletic Conference championship held at the Sportsplex in Gulfport, Miss., on Saturday.
Shorter not only won the event - it was the Hawks' fourth straight men's cross country conference crown - it dominated the field. The Hawks claimed the top six spots in the final results, with freshman standout Paul Chelimo taking first place in a time of 24:28, 55 second faster than his teammate and runner-up Eliud Ng'etich, who completed the 8k course in 25:23.
The perfect 15-point score is nothing new to Shorter. The Hawks won the 2008 SSAC title in the same fashion.
One of the athletes responsible for that feat two years ago helped the Hawks repeat the feat. Peter Limo, who was a freshman on the 2008 squad, placed third overall in 2010 with a time of 25:26.
He was followed by Nicolas Toscan and Doug Kalmbach, who placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in times of 25:39 and 26:32.
The highlight, however, was Chelimo, a freshman from Iten, Kenya who was twice named the NAIA's National Cross Country Runner of the Week.
Chelimo has been a mainstay at the top of the leaderboard all fall, and his work culminated in an SSAC championship on Saturday morning.
Lee University placed second with a final score of 42. Truett-McConnell (89), Southern Wesleyan (91) and Spring Hill (120) rounded out the top five in the 10-team event.
Shorter will compete in the NAIA Men's Cross Country National Championship on Nov. 20 in Vancouver, Wash. The Hawks finished 18th in last year's national meet.
