Men place 12th at SEC

John Ewing paces Commodores.

Oct. 26, 2012

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NASHVILLE -- The Vanderbilt men's cross country team placed 12th in the 2012 SEC Cross Country Championships, held Friday, October 26, at Percy Warner Park. The Commodores finished with a team score of 358 points, just ahead of LSU (378 points).

As has been the case most the season, sophomore John Ewing paced Vanderbilt, running the 8K in time of 25:31.58. Ewing improved his time by over a minute since the Commodore Classic in September.

Matthew Cleveland was Vanderbilt's next finisher, placing 68th with a time of 25:58.10. The sophomore also improved on his time from the Commodore Classic.

Sophomore Andrew Bachman clocked a time of 26:20.55 (90th), followed by junior David McAdams at 26:31.27.

Senior Alan Ash ran his final conference championship in 26:58.69 (103rd), Joel Jones finished 107th (27:06.33) while Nick French rounded out the scoring for Vanderbilt with 88 points and a time of 27:31.35.

By edging LSU, as they did at the Commodore Classic, the Commodores defeated an SEC team at the Championships for the first time since 2009.

The men's race was won by Arkansas for the 20th time in 22 seasons since the Razorbacks joined the SEC.

Texas A&M's Henry Lelei won the meet with a time of 23:29.95, nearly 17 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Lelei became the first-ever Southeastern Conference champion for the Aggies in any sport.

Next up for the Commodores in the NCAA South Regional on Friday, November 9. The meet will be hosted by Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla.