College Cross Country News – Guilford Picked in Preseason ODAC Polls

FOREST, Va. – Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) cross county coaches picked Guilford College’s women’s team eighth and the men 10th in their annual preseason polls released Friday. The women’s cross
country team earned 48 points in the 12-team ranking, while the men tallied 21 points among 11 squads. Last year, Washington and Lee University swept the ODAC Championships, and top both polls to open this year’s campaign with 121 points (11 first-place votes) for the women and 98 (eight first-place votes) on the men’s side. Bridgewater College (104) and Roanoke College (100) round out the top three in the
women’s poll, with the Maroons receiving one first-place vote. Bridgewater tallied 90 points and two first-place votes to sit second in the men’s poll. Lynchburg College earned the final first-place vote
and 80 points to rank third.

Guilford head coach Danny Cash’s squad returns four members from last year’s women’s team: sophomore Samantha Brooks, juniors Sommer Fanney and Jamie McCreary, and senior Ava Nadel. Fanney was Guilford’s top 2015 performer in four of six events, which included two top-25 finishes. Her time of 21:02.86 at the Coastal Carolina Invitational ranks ninth in school history in five-kilometer events. She placed
19th at the ODAC Championships with a six-kilometer time of 24:40.1. Brooks competed in each of the Quakers’ six contests, and showed consistent improvement as the season progressed. Her best performance
was a 13th-place finish at the Hagan-Stone Invitational, and she tallied a 28:28.9 at the ODAC Championships to place 61st overall.

On the men’s side, Cash returns six runners, sophomores Caleb Amstutz, Lee Joyner, and Connor Stephens, junior Caleb Anderson, and seniors Quinton Simones and Jonathan Sumner. Amstutz returns after a solid
rookie campaign that featured a season-best eight-kilometer time of 28:26.8 at the ODAC Championships and a third-place finish at the Hagan-Stone Invitational. His ODAC Championship performance ranks 84th
in Guilford history. The Quakers’ roster features an experienced group of five other returners who each competed in at-least four events last year, with two running in each of Guilford’s six contests.

The Quakers begin the 2016 campaign on Saturday (9/3) in Salisbury, North Carolina, at the Chick-Fil-A Invitational. The season will conclude with the ODAC Championships October 29 in Lexington, Virginia, before the NCAA Division III South/Southeast Regionals in Rome, Georgia, November 12.

2016 ODAC WOMEN’S XC PRESEASON POLL (#) denotes first-place votes

1. Washington and Lee University (11) 121, 2. Bridgewater College 104,
3. Roanoke College (1) 100, 4. Eastern Mennonite University 91, 5.
Lynchburg College 84, 6. Virginia Wesleyan College 70, 7. Shenandoah
University 66, 8. Guilford College 48, 9. Randolph College 38, 10.
Emory & Henry College 36, 11. Hollins University 19, 12. Sweet Briar
College 15.

2016 ODAC MEN’S XC PRESEASON POLL (#) denotes first-place votes

1. Washington and Lee University (8) 98, 2. Bridgewater College (2)
90, 3. Lynchburg College (1) 80, 4. Eastern Mennonite University 74,
5. Roanoke College 65, 6. Shenandoah University 51, 7. Virginia
Wesleyan College 44, 8. Emory & Henry College 40, 9. Randolph College
22, 10. Guilford College 21, 11. Hampden-Sydney College 20.