MECHANICSVILLE, Va. – Junior Zach Michon led the Hawks with a 10th-place individual finish and sophomore Bobby Hastie turned in a breakthrough performance to lead the Saint Joseph's men's cross country squad to a fourth-place team finish in a field of 14 at the 2018 Atlantic 10 Men's Cross Country Championship, held at Pole Green Park on Saturday morning. The Hawks totaled 124 points and finished just six points behind Saint Louis in the five-mile race; Dayton (72) and La Salle (75) went 1-2.
For his top-15 finish in the field of 129, Michon earned All-Conference honors for the second year in a row, following a 15th-place performance in 2017.
Saint Joseph's dominated early with four Hawks at the front of the pack at the first mile. SJU was third at the 1.6k split and 3.4k split before dropping down to sixth at the 6.4k split and finishing back up at fourth.
In his first time on the Pole Green Park course, Michon went 25:10.3 for five miles en route to his 10th-place finish. The junior was 12th at the 6.4k split but picked off two competitors to finish in the field's top-ten.
"That's a good movement forward for him," said 30th-year head coach Mike Glavin of Michon's performance. "It sets him up to get even further next year."
"We all wanted to go out there and have fun," said Michon. "We had the big goals. We put in a lot of hard work this season, and it didn't really pan out the way we wanted it to, but we still went out there and gave it our all, gave it a lot of heart."
Hastie was outstanding in his A-10 cross country debut, crossing in 25:26.8 for 18th overall. The sophomore was 23rd at the 6.4k split but flew by five racers for the top-20 finish.
"Bobby ran the race of his life to date and turned in the kind of performance you would hope someone would contribute at this level," praised Glavin.
"Individually, I just wanted to race for the seniors," added Hastie. "Coach Glavin wanted us to think about relaxing and doing it for each other, and that was at the forefront of my mind today. I didn't really want to think about pain or how hard it was going to feel, because I knew it was about doing it for the team. I was able to execute that today, which was self-rewarding."
Senior Will Sponaugle (25:36.5) also came up huge for the Crimson and Gray, finishing as the Hawks' #3 runner in 27th in his first race at Pole Green Park. The senior ran like a senior; after sitting 53rd after the first 1.6k of the race, Sponaugle moved up 22 spots to sit 31st at 6.4k.
"Will met his preseason goal by moving from 46th (in 2017) into the top 30, which was his ultimate goal," said Glavin.
Classmate Jack Daly (25:40.4) and graduate student captain Collin Crilly (25:44.2) went 32nd and 37th, respectively, to round out the scoring unit.
Senior Shawn Hutchison (25:52.4) finished 46th and sophomore Matthew Scarpill (26:02.7) went 56th, respectively, to finish as SJU's #6 and #7 runners while juniors John Walker (59th, 26:09.4) and Josh Clark (63rd, 26:14.8) and senior Sean Macpherson (92nd, 26:46.0) closed out SJU's championship roster.
"We were of course a little dissapointed, obviously, in the fourth-place finish," said Glavin, whose squad will take a hit with the graduations of Sponaugle, Daly, Crilly, Hutchison, and Macpherson.
Hastie is optimistic about the future.
"We wish we placed higher as a team," said Hastie, echoing Glavin's sentiment. "But there's always next year."
Saint Joseph's returns to action at the 2018 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship on Friday, November 9. The 10k race is set for noon at Penn State University's Blue-White Golf Course in University Park, Pa. The top two teams receive automatic qualification for the 2018 NCAA Championship on November 17.
