SALISBURY, Md. - This moment
has been a long time in the making for the Salisbury University
men's cross country team. The Sea Gulls have come close in the past
but now a 13-year-old dry spell is over as senior Eric
Graves was selected to the 2007 NCAA Division III cross
country national championships. Graves becomes the first Sea Gull
since Jeff Hankins in 1994 to make the final race.
Graves, the 2007 Capital Athletic Conference Male Runner of the
Year, finished in 27th place last Saturday at the NCAA Mideast
Regional in Allentown, Pa., as he ran the 8K course in a time of
25:38. For his effort Graves earned All-Region honors but he didn't
automatically qualify for the national championship meet. Coach
Jim Jones and Graves had to wait
until Sunday afternoon to officially know that Graves made the
field.
The 2007 NCAA Division III cross country national championships
are being held this Saturday (November 17) in Northfield, Minn. The
championships are being hosted by St. Olaf College. The women's
race is 11 a.m. and the men's race is at Noon.
It has been a memorable season for Graves who led the Sea Gulls
to their third straight men's CAC championship back on November 3
in York, Pa. Graves finished the 8K course with a new course record
time of 26:04. The second-place finisher was 30 seconds behind
Graves. In addition to his CAC Runner of the Year award, he also
made All-CAC first team.
Last weekend, the Catonsville, Md., native led the Sea Gulls to
their highest finish ever in a NCAA regional as the maroon and gold
finished 6th overall out of 41 teams. Even though the team fell
short of making it into the top 5 and a chance of being selected as
a team for the national championship meet having Graves represent
the team is another highlight for a much decorated program.
"We fell short of our goal as a team but having Eric make
nationals should help build excitement within the team and motivate
them for next year," said Jones. "He has had the best year as an
athlete that I have had here at SU. He is very consistent plus it
is very rare to have an athlete not slump the entire season."
This season Graves has been named CAC Athlete of the Week five
times out of seven weeks, one of which SU was off. He has
first-place finishes at the Sea Gull Opener (25:51 - 8K) on
September 1, Towson Invitational (26:45 - 8K) on September 8,
DeSales Invitational (26:23 - 8K) on October 13, Elizabethtown
Invitational (19:07 - 6K) on October 20 and the CAC championship
(26:04 - 8K) on November 3. His personal record is 25:31 set on
September 29 at the Don Cathcart Invitational at Winter Place Park
in Salisbury, Md.
Jones and Graves are hoping for a top 35 finish for Graves on
Saturday. If Graves meets that goal he would become only the second
men's cross country All-American runner in school history. Scott
Scheffler is the only men's cross country All-American for
Salisbury as he earned the honor in 1985. Hankins finished 68th out
184 runners in 1994 with a time of 26:13 at the Lehigh University
8K course. Hankins was the first SU runner since 1988 to make the
national field.
