Top Ten of 2012-13 - #4 - Men's Cross Country and Track & Field Teams Sweep Landmark Conference Championships
BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Moravian College continues its countdown of the top 10 honors and moments of the 2012-13 season today with a look at our No. 4 highlight – The men’s cross country and men’s track & field teams sweeping the three Landmark Conference running championships for the second consecutive year.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Moravian College continues its countdown of the top 10 honors and moments of the 2012-13 season today with a look at our No. 4 highlight – The men's cross country and men's track & field teams sweeping the three Landmark Conference running championships for the second consecutive year.
The Landmark Conference began competition in 2007-08, and the Greyhounds have won two cross country championships, five of six indoor track & field titles and all six outdoor track & field championships including the sweep of all three titles in 2012-13 for the second straight year.
"We call the sweep the Triple Crown, and it is an awesome feeling," stated senior Donnie Noble. "It is a nice culmination of all of my teammates' hard work throughout the year and all the coaches' hard work. When it was all over I felt like, I shared something with everyone and I appreciated everyone's hard work."
Juniata College hosted the conference championship at the Fort Roberdeau Historic Site in Altoona, Pennsylvania on October 27th. Moravian captured its second straight team title with a score of 39 points while Susquehanna University was the runner-up with 54 points.
Moravian dominated the race by taking four of the top five positions. Sophomore Dillon Farrell won Landmark Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year honors with his first place finish, and he was joined on the All-Conference First Team by Noble, who placed third, sophomore Alec Duncan in fourth and senior Dylan Marton in fifth place.
"We were confident in how Alec, Dillon, and Donnie would perform, but Jake Donchez was coming off some downtime, and Dylan just spent the spring semester abroad," Head Coach Jesse Baumann explained. "We knew we needed both of them to be at 100% if we wanted to win conference and excel at regionals and both were certainly question marks heading into the season. However, they both wound up improving tremendously throughout the year and wound up peaking at the right time in late October, helping us to win the conference title."
On February 23rd, Moravian headed to Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove for the sixth consecutive year as host of the Landmark Conference Indoor Championships. The Greyhounds recorded a team score of 192, edging the host Crusaders by 21 points for their fifth title. Baumann and his staff of assistant coaches - Dustin Rommel (sprints/jumps), Mike Lawyrk (pole vault), Bob Luciano (javelin), Joanna Kovacs (throws), Steve Rahn (hurdles), Alyssa Wert (sprints/relays) and Gary Zack (javelin) were selected as the Landmark Coaching Staff of the Year.
Moravian also had Noble earn the Landmark Indoor Co-Track Athlete of the Year award for a second consecutive year while junior Kristopher Joint was honored as the Landmark Field Athlete of the Year.
Noble earned First Team accolades in the mile run and the 5,000-meter run after winning each event for the third straight year. Joint was a member of the Landmark All-Conference First Team for wins in the long jump and triple jump, and he also earned All-Conference Second Team honors for a runner-up finish in the 4x200-meter relay with senior Travis King and freshman Ryan Karnopp and Albert Myers. Joint also earned All-America honors indoors in the long jump at the NCAA Division III Championships hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Senior Jonathan Heberling earned First Team for winning the high jump for a second consecutive year, and he was on the Second Team for a runner-up in the long jump. Junior David Cariello was on First Team with wins in the pole vault and 60-meter hurdles while Karnopp was on the Second Team in the pole vault and King was a Second Team honoree in the triple jump.
Farrell earned Second Team honors with runner-up finishes in the mile and 5,000-meter runs while freshman Jason Fuehring was the runner-up in the high jump to earn Second Team accolades.
"Obviously, it's the goal to win every conference meet going into it, but wanting and doing are two separate things," Baumann said. "Every championship meet is tough, but indoors in particular was a challenge for us. We didn't come into the indoor season with the fitness we should have, and then we had some key injuries to people like Yacine Zerdoum, John Barr, and at the time, we thought Ryan and Donnie were also injured. However, Susquehanna (our closest competition at that meet) had some injuries at the end of the indoor season as well which basically nullified any "on paper" advantage that either team had going into the meet. We caught a few lucky breaks on the relays, and we had a few people really step up, in particular with the weight throw, jumps, and distance and we wound up pulling out a very narrow, and hard fought victory indoors. When you look back on it, it's certainly gratifying, but in the moment it's hard to enjoy it because the minute you're done with the cross country or the indoor meet you're already stressing about what you need to do to have a chance at winning the next meet."
The squad headed to Goucher College in Towson, Maryland on April 27th and 28th for the outdoor championship. That meet saw the Greyhounds score 312 points while Susquehanna was the runner-up again with 239.5 points. Baumann and his staff were also honored once again as the Landmark Coaching Staff of the Year.
The Greyhounds had Noble named the Track Athlete of the Year while Myers honored as the Rookie of the Year. Noble was a member of the Landmark All-Conference First Team for wins in the 1,500-meter, 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs while Myers was on the First Team after he won the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and the 4x100-meter relay with King, senior Justin Taylor and sophomore Travis Dorsa.
Joint earned First Team with victories in the long jump and triple jump while Heberling earned First Team for winning the high jump for a second consecutive year. Cariello was on First Team with wins in the pole vault and 110-meter high hurdles, and he was on the Second Team in the long jump while Duncan was on the First Team with a victory in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Farrell earned Second Team honors with a runner-up finish in the 10,000-meter run while Karnopp was the runner-up in the pole vault to earn Second Team accolades. King earned Second Team honors in the triple jump with a runner-up finish to Joint after winning the event the last three years. Junior Timothy Lorah was the runner-up in the javelin while sophomore Parker Munson was the runner-up in the discus as both student-athletes earned spots on the Second Team.
Lorah, King and Joint each competed at the 2013 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with Lorah earning All-America honors in the javelin.
"We were extremely proud of how we did at ECACs outdoor (6th)," explained Baumann. "Conference is certainly a big goal for us, but we stress to recruits and our team how much we value ECACs and NCAAs. Our javelin throwers, jumpers, and distance runners had great meets, but even people like Dave Cariello, who missed scoring points in the hurdles by one place, set an enormous PR at the meet. Also, at NCAAs, we were extremely proud to see Travis King make it in the triple jump in his last ever meet, and also to get Kris Joint and Tim Lorah to achieve their first All American awards."
Number three on our countdown will be announced on Tuesday, July 30th.
No. 10 - Donnie Noble Sweeps Landmark Conference Track
Athlete of the Year Awards
No. 9 - Women's Volleyball Wins School Record 29 Matches
No. 8 - Women's Basketball Wins Play 4Kay for 5th Straight Year
with over $16,000 Raised
No. 7 - Micah Leonard Sweeps Landmark Conference Field Athlete of
the Year Honors
No. 6 - Women's Track & Field Team Wins 2 More Landmark
Conference Titles
No. 5 - Dillon Farrell Wins Landmark Conference Men's Cross Country
Championship
No. 4 - Men's Cross Country and Track & Field Teams Sweep
Landmark Conference Team Titles for 2nd Straight Year
No. 3 - Travis King & Micah Leonard Honored as Greyhound Senior
Athlete Award Winners
No. 2 - Micah Leonard Finishes as Runner-Up in Triple Jump at NCAA
DIII National Championships
No. 1 - Baseball Wins Landmark Conference Championship
