TOWSON, Md. --- Six members of the Moravian College cross country teams earned Landmark All-Conference honors for their finishes at last Saturday's conference championship races, and the Greyhounds garnered two major awards with third-year Head Coach Jesse Baumann taking home Women's Coach of the Year accolades and junior Dillon Farrell being named the Men's Performer of the Year for a second straight fall.
Baumann led the women's program to its second Landmark Conference Championship in three seasons last Saturday on the course at the United States Soldiers and Airmen's Home, hosted by The Catholic University of America. The Greyhounds scored 47 points with their top five runners to score all finishing in the top 15 of the 6,000-meter race. Baumann earned Landmark Coach of the Year honors for the second time with the women, and he is also a two-time Landmark Coach of the Year of the men in 2011 and 2012.
"Jesse has done an outstanding job since his arrival here two years ago," stated Director of Athletics Scot Dapp. "His garnering Coach of the Year honors is a fitting reward for the work he does. It is great to see our Women's Cross Country team capture the Landmark Conference championships. Equally impressive is the performance of Dillon Farrell as he won the men's race and was named the Landmark Performer of the Year; both of the accomplishments were repeats from a year ago – not bad for a junior runner."
First Team All-Conference honors are awarded to the top seven finishers in each race with those finishing eighth through 14th awarded Second Team honors. Junior Claire Del Casale was the runner-up in the race of 61 competitors, earning Landmark All-Conference First Team honors for the second time in her career and the third All-Conference recognition of her career.
"Claire did everything she could mid-race to try to pull away from Katrina Woods (eventual winner from Juniata College) since we knew going in she has a better finishing kick than Claire does, it just wasn't quite enough," Baumann said. "Katrina just had a great race and great finish, but Claire did all she could to give herself the best opportunity to win, so we're both still very happy with her runner-up finish."
Junior Emily Lambright also earned All-Conference First Team honors for the Greyhounds with her seventh place finish. Lambright is now a two-time All-Conference honoree after being on the Second Team in 2011.
"We thought somewhere between fourth and eighth was realistic going into the race for Emily, and she finished right in that mix," stated Baumann. "It was a big improvement for her from last year, and we're both very happy with making First Team."
Junior Devon Bedell ran to her first All-Conference honor last Saturday as she placed 11th to make the Second Team. Freshman Meg Brockett was just one spot behind Bedell to earn a spot on the Second Team as well.
"Meg has had some illness issues the last few weeks so we honestly didn't know what to expect going into the race," Baumann said. "We planned to hold back a little early on and see if she could slide into the top 15, which she executed perfectly.
"Devon's had some off and on issues with injuries, so like Meg we wanted her to be patient early in the race and move after the two-mile mark," Baumann continued. "She executed this perfectly and had her best conference race to date."
Farrell continued his domination of Landmark Conference opponents; he has been the conference Runner of the Week five times this fall, as he earned a 19-second victory in the men's 8,000-meter race. While his winning time this year was closer than the 43.5 seconds a year ago, Farrell is now a two-time Landmark Conference Champion, Performer of the Year and All-Conference First Team honoree. He missed the meet his freshman year due to an injury.
"It's the second consecutive win for Dillon, something we're obviously very happy about," Baumann said. "We tried to hold back a little in the early stages to make sure he was feeling good, and then make a move between mile 2-3, which he did, and wound up running a great race."
Junior Alec Duncan finished seventh in the race for the Greyhounds as he earned his third All-Conference First Team honor as a member of the Moravian squad.
"To be honest, both he and I were hoping for a better result, he just felt a little off on Saturday," Baumann explained. "He still managed to earn his third consecutive First Team All-Conference award, and against a very competitive field, so we're happy he was able to pull off an impressive accomplishment."
The Greyhounds will be back in action on Saturday, November 16 at the 2013 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional being hosted by Muhlenberg College on Lehigh University's Goodman Campus. The top 35 runners for both the men and women earn All-Region honors and the top seven individuals not on the two teams qualifying for the NCAA Division III National Championships on November 23 will earn individual automatic berths to meet in Hanover, Indiana. There are 16 team at-large selections to give a final field of 280 runners in each race that will be announced on November 17 by the NCAA.
