Liberty University
ASUN Championships
Lady Flames Roll to 1st ASUN Women's XC Team Title
3/5/2021 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
The Liberty women's cross country squad's first ASUN Conference team title came in dominating fashion at Friday's ASUN Cross Country Championships at the Georgia Premier Cross Country Course. Adelyn Ackley, Calli Doan and Grace Dwyer finished 1-2-3 as the Lady Flames matched the lowest winning score in meet history with 19 points. On the men's side, Ryan Drew's fifth-place individual showing led the Flames to their third consecutive ASUN runner-up finish.
Eight of the first 14 women's runners to cross the 5K finish line were Lady Flames as Liberty posted a 19-46 victory over two-time defending champion Lipscomb. As was the case in 2019, Ackley (17:43.3) edged teammate Doan (17:44.1) for the individual victory, earning automatic qualification to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in the process. Rachel Johnson earned her first ASUN Women's Coach of the Year trophy.
In the men's 8K, North Florida posted an impressive 1-2-3-4 individual finish and a 16-54 team victory over the Flames. Liberty placed second for the third straight year at this meet and has now finished as the champion or runner-up at each of its last 18 conference meet appearances. Drew (25:20.4) was the first non-Osprey to finish, garnering first team All-ASUN honors for the second year in a row.
Women's Team Results:
1) Liberty – 19
2) Lipscomb – 46
3) North Florida – 80
4) FGCU – 143
5) Bellarmine – 146
6) North Alabama – 158
7) Stetson – 180
Men's Team Results:
1) North Florida – 16
2) Liberty – 54
3) Lipscomb – 85
4) North Alabama – 110
5) Stetson – 130
6) FGCU – 143
7) Bellarmine – 182
8) Jacksonville - 249
Women's 5K Individual Results (71 Total Finishers):
1) Adelyn Ackley, Liberty – 17:43.3 (Runner of the Year, 1st Team All-Conference)
2) Calli Doan, Liberty – 17:44.1 (1st Team All-Conference)
3) Grace Dwyer, Liberty – 18:02.8 (1st Team All-Conference)
4) Courtney Brenner, Lipscomb – 18:06.7 (1st Team All-Conference)
5) Lydia Miller, Lipscomb – 18:09.9 (Freshman of the Year, 1st Team All-Conference)
6) Priscillah Kiplagat, Liberty – 18:12.2 (1st Team All-Conference)
7) Noel Palmer, Liberty – 18:13.0 (1st Team All-Conference)
8) Marie Hostetler, Liberty – 18:19.7 (2nd Team All-Conference, All-Freshman Team)
9) Lydia Van Dijk, North Florida – 18:32.7 (2nd Team All-Conference)
10) Colbi Borland, Lipscomb – 18:34.1 (2nd Team All-Conference, All-Freshman Team)
11) Emma Bower, Liberty – 18:40.2 (2nd Team All-Conference)
12) Grace Lahey, Lipscomb – 18:42.4 (2nd Team All-Conference)
13) Grace Gumpel, North Florida – 18:47.6 (2nd Team All-Conference)
14) Anna Hostetler, Liberty – 18:50.9 (2nd Team All-Conference)
17) Morgan Beaupre, FGCU – 19:17.5 (All-Freshman Team)
18) Kiara Carter, Lipscomb – 19:20.4 (All-Freshman Team)
24) Lauren Hirneisen, Liberty – 19:30.9
27) Madison MacPherson, Liberty – 19:38.5
31) Chelsea Stocki, Liberty – 19:49.6
39) Jessica Rogers, Liberty – 20:15.7
Men's 8K Individual Results (68 Total Finishers):
1) Nathan Jubran, North Florida – 24:38.4 (Runner of the Year, 1st Team All-Conference)
2) Aidan O'Gorman, North Florida – 25:09.6 (1st Team All-Conference)
3) Leo Queyrou, North Florida – 25:13.5 (1st Team All-Conference)
4) Noah Perkins, North Florida – 25:17.2 (1st Team All-Conference)
5) Ryan Drew, Liberty – 25:20.4 (1st Team All-Conference)
6) Jake Turner, North Florida – 25:42.3 (Freshman of the Year, 1st Team All-Conference)
7) Brady Johnson, Lipscomb – 25:46.0 (1st Team All-Conference)
8) Patrick Smith, Lipscomb – 25:46.7 (2nd Team All-Conference)
9) Kipruto Kogei, Liberty – 25:48.3 (2nd Team All-Conference, All-Freshman Team)
10) Tristen Montalvo, Stetson – 25:54.7 (2nd Team All-Conference)
11) Robert Pedroza, North Florida – 26:00.2 (2nd Team All-Conference, All-Freshman Team)
12) Felix Kandie, Liberty – 26:02.0 (2nd Team All-Conference)
13) Caleb Olson, Liberty – 26:03.1 (2nd Team All-Conference)
14) Timothy Doyle, North Florida – 26:09.4 (2nd Team All-Conference)
15) Kyle Harkabus, Liberty – 26:15.9 (All-Freshman Team)
18) Nick Lewis, Bellarmine – 26:33.0 (All-Freshman Team)
28) Joe Spitzer, Liberty – 26:48.5
35) Jeremiah Mussmon, Liberty – 27:07.3
41) Jacob Underwood, Liberty – 27:27.5
47) Stephen Carvalho, Liberty – 28:13.3
Women's Coach of the Year
Rachel Johnson, Liberty
Men's Coach of the Year
Jeff Pigg, North Florida
Race Reactions
• For the Lady Flames, Friday's team championship came after they had finished second to Lipscomb in both 2018 and 2019 at this meet.
• This is Liberty's 10th women's cross country conference title at the NCAA Division I level and the Lady Flames' first since capturing the 2016 Big South crown.
• Liberty's final score of 19 tied the meet record for lowest winning score. The 1993 FIU and 2015 Lipscomb women's squads previously scored 19 points.
• The Lady Flames' 27-point margin of victory was the largest at the ASUN meet since 2015, when Lipscomb won by a meet-record 54 points.
• Ackley, Doan and Dwyer became the first teammates to place 1-2-3 at the ASUN meet since Lipscomb posted a 1-2-3 individual finish in 2014.
• This marked the Lady Flames' first-ever 1-2-3 individual finish at an NCAA Division I conference meet.
• This was the first time the Lady Flames put five runners in the top seven at an NCAA Division I conference meet and the first time any ASUN women's team had done so since Lipscomb in 2015.
• Ackley is the first back-to-back ASUN women's cross country champion since North Florida's Eden Meyer in 2016 and 2017.
• Ackley is the first ASUN women to claim back-to-back titles as a freshman and sophomore since Georgia State's Sarah Howard in 1996 and 1997.
• Ackley is the Lady Flames' first back-to-back individual conference champion since Jennifer Klugh won three straight Big South individual titles between 2010 and 2012.
• Ackley has now won all three of her ASUN races during her collegiate career, also including her indoor 5K victory on Saturday at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.
• Ackley edged Doan for victory by 0.8 seconds, the narrowest margin between first and second place in meet history.
• Doan becomes the Lady Flames' first three-time All-ASUN women's cross country runner, following a fifth-place finish in 2018 and runner-up showings the last two years.
• Dwyer's first All-ASUN medal at Liberty was the fourth all-conference honor of her career. She was SoCon all-conference runner in 2016, 2017 and 2019, helping Furman claim the team title each time.
• Noel Palmer is now a two-time first team All-ASUN runner, as she previously finished second overall in 2018.
• All-Freshman Team member Marie Hostetler (eighth place) was the second-fastest women's freshman in Friday's race, trailing only Lipscomb's Lydia Miller (fifth place).
• The Liberty men's squad posted a top-two conference finish for the 18th straight year. The Flames have placed second at seven consecutive conference cross country meets, including three in the ASUN and four in the Big South Conference.
• Drew is the first Flame to make the first team All-ASUN squad at two ASUN Cross Country Championships. He was the fourth-place finisher a year ago.
• Kipruto Kogei (ninth place) was the second-fastest men's freshman on Friday, trailing only North Florida's Jake Turner (sixth place).
• Kogei and Kyle Harkabus (15th place) gave the Flames a pair of All-Freshman Team members for the third straight season.
• Felix Kandie earned a second team All-ASUN medal with his 12th-place finish. He becomes the Flames' first three-time All-ASUN men's cross country runner, following his second team appearance in 2018 (11th place) and a first team showing in 2019 (second place).
• The ASUN Cross Country Championships were contested during the spring semester for the first time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous 35 editions of the meet were contested in either October or November.
• Many of Liberty's distance runners were competing at their second conference meet in as many weeks, as the 2021 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships took place Feb. 26 and 27 at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.
Up Next
The team and individual qualifiers for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will be announced on NCAA.com, Sunday at 1 p.m. In addition to Ackley, the full women's team and Drew as a men's individual are also under consideration for selection.
The NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will be contested on March 15 at the Oklahoma State Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Okla. The women's 6K will begin at 12:50 p.m. Eastern and the men's 10K will get started at 1:40 p.m. Eastern, with both races to be televised live on ESPNU.