TOWSON, Md. --- The Moravian University cross country squads had a total of six runners earn 2022 Landmark All-Conference honors this past Saturday at the 2022 Landmark Conference Championships hosted by Goucher College in Towson, Maryland.
Senior Shane Houghton won the men's individual title and was selected as the Men's Runner of the Year while being joined on the All-Conference First Team by sophomores Owen Nahf and Josh Mangini as the trio finished 1-2-3. Sophomore Nathan Hajel earned a spot on the All-Conference Second Team while Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann and his assistants Jon D'Ottavio and Sarah Hughes were honored as the Landmark Conference Men's Coaching Staff of the Year after leading the Greyhounds to their second straight Landmark Conference title.
"Congratulations to Jesse and his staff, Sarah and Jon for garnering another Landmark championship and Men's Coaching Staff of the Year," noted Director of Athletics and Recreation Mary Beth Spirk. "They are tremendous leaders and are key to the team's success. All three motivate and encourage their student-athletes to be the best on and off the course. They work tirelessly and we are proud to celebrate their accomplishments."
Freshman Tara Smurla was honored as the Landmark Conference Women's Rookie of the Year as the top first-year runner in the race, and she garnered All-Conference First. Team accolades while sophomore Amber Poniktera earned a spot on the All-Conference Second Team.
Houghton finished first of the 81 runners with a winning 8,000-meter time of 26:10.3, just edging Nahf, who was the runner-up in a time of 26:10.6. Mangini was just two seconds back in third place. Hajel raced to a ninth place in a time of 26:24.9. Hajel was a member of the 2021 Landmark All-Conference First Team while Nahf made the All-Conference Second Team a year ago.
"The highest Shane had finished at this meet prior to Saturday was 40th, so if there's ever a lesson in perseverance and not letting previous results dictate the future, Shane's race from Saturday is that example," stated Baumann. "Our plan going in was to ignore the individual win because we had team aspirations that we didn't want to jeopardize with a risky race. Both Shane and Owen executed it perfectly, sitting in 5th place for much of the early stages in the race. As the race unfolded, he just kept the same intensity and other athletes came back to him between about 2k and the 4k mark, which was when he caught up to the race leader. He had preserved a lot of energy from a steady early-race tempo, which he kept on clipping off until about 2k to go when he surged into the lead which he held onto all the way through a strong kick.
"He's put in nine weeks in excess of 90 miles since June, he's been running incredibly fast workouts since July, so we knew his fitness was there for something special, he just had to be patient to let it happen," continued Baumann. "We're focused on the next step now, which we hope will be getting him and some of his teammates to NCAAs in Michigan later this month."
Smurla led the women's team to a fifth-place team finish as she finished sixth out of 78 runners in a 6,000-meter time of 23:28.0. Poniktera garnered All-Conference Second Team honors for the second straight as she took 12th in a time of 23:54.9.
"We've known since Tara committed to us last year that she had the potential to become one of the top runners in the conference even early on in her career. She has certainly lived up to those expectations," noted Baumann. "We've been working on some racing strategies and early race patience as she continues to acclimate to a slightly longer racing distance. At Kutztown and Paul Short earlier on in the season, her first mile aggressiveness wound up hurting her in the last kilometer. We crafted an approach to this for Saturday, both mentally and in our training to counter this and she executed the plan perfectly. Tara was even starting to surge alone into 3rd place with about 1200m to go, however, her shoe came untied which led to her flexing her foot in a way that aggravated a lingering injury. If not for that, we're confident she could have continued her surge and would have had a great chance at finishing even higher than 6th. Into the final kilometer of the race, she was racing alongside runners who had qualified for NCAA meets before, so that shows her upside and what we feel is a realistic goal for Tara even later on this fall."
Moravian is off this week before returning to action at the 2022 NCAA Division III Metro Regional being hosted by DeSales University on Saturday, November 12.
