Alabama Gears up for NCAA Cross Country Championships
11/21/2008 12:00:00 AM
Nov. 21, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The No. 5 ranked men's cross country team will travel to Terre Haute, Ind. this weekend to compete at the NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships hosted by Indiana State University. The race will take place on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course located at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. Alabama enters the weekend with its highest ranking in school history and is coming off a sixth place finish last season, which marked the highest finish in school history.
This year, the Crimson Tide is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation by USTFCCCA. If Alabama can race together as a team, they will have a chance at winning the program's first national title in its existence. The squad returns four of its top five scorers from last season, but they have added front runner Tyson David to the team. All five are capable of attaining All-American (Top 40 individuals) honors.
The men's 10,000 meter race is scheduled to begin at 12:48 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 24. The championship races will be broadcast live on CBS College Sports Network and streamed online via NCAA.com.
Team Leaders
The Tide returns 2007 cross country All-American Augustus Maiyo and individual SEC Champion Emmanuel Bor for the 2008 campaign. Abraham Kutingala will help lead this year's squad as he has been named All-SEC and All-South Region all four years running for the Tide. Kutingala is the first Alabama athlete to accomplish the feat of earning both honors every year across four years. Two-time All-SEC and All-South Region performer Andrew Kirwa joins the Tide as well. JUCO transfer Tyson David and current SEC record holder at 10,000 meters on the track (28:23.01) is quickly making a name for himself and Alabama as he won the Pre-National Individual Championship this year. David has led the Tide in four of the five cross country races he has competed in thus far.
Ranked Teams
Alabama will toe the line with the Top 31 nationally ranked teams as well as 38 individual qualifiers on Monday. Three teams from the Southeastern Conference qualified for the national meet and are led by No. 5 Alabama. No. 13 Auburn and No. 24 Arkansas will join the Tide in Terre Haute. The top five ranked teams in the meet are No. 1 Oregon (defending NCAA Champions), No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 5 Alabama.
2007 NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships
Alabama finished sixth at the 2007 NCAA Championships marking the highest finish for the Tide in school history. Augustus Maiyo earned All-American honors with a 18th place finish running a time of 30:12.80 over the10,000 meter course. Maiyo was the first All-American in cross country for the Tide since the late David Kimani earned the honor in 2000 and 2002. Andrew Kirwa placed 36th with a time of 30:33.50, just missing All-American honors by six places. Kirwa was the second freshman in the field to finish the race.
Kirwa was followed by Emmanuel Bor (30:37.80) and Abraham Kutingala (30:42.60) in 44th and 54th place, respectively. Titus Koeh rounded out the top five scoring runners for Alabama crossing the line in 198th place with a time of 32:00.80.
2008 NCAA Division 1 Men's Cross Country National Poll (First-Place Votes in Parentheses)
1 Oregon (9) 2 Oklahoma State (3) 3 Stanford 4 Wisconsin 5 Alabama 6 Portland 7 Iona College 8 Georgetown 9 Michigan 10 Colorado 11 Northern Arizona 12 Minnesota 13 Auburn 14 William & Mary 15 Virginia 16 BYU 17 Tulsa 18 California 19 Texas A&M 20 Florida State 21 Washington 22 Iowa State 23 North Carolina State 24 Arkansas 25 Butler 26 Penn State 27 UCLA 28 Providence 29 Notre Dame 30 Cal Poly
2008 Honors and Awards
Tyson David has accumulated two SEC Athlete of the Week honors this season. David was also named the SEC Male Athlete of the Year. For the first time in school history, the Crimson Tide's top five runners David, Maiyo, Bor, Kutingala and Kirwa were all named to the All-SEC Team and All-South Region Team. Cross country coach Joe Walker was named SEC Coach of the Year.
The Crimson Tide won their second SEC title and first since 1973 this year. The championship ended The University of Arkansas' 34 straight conference (17-SWC, 17-SEC) titles streak. Alabama became the first team to defeat the Hogs since they joined the conference in 1991.
Quotes from Coach Joe Walker:
On how the team grew into a top five team:
"It's been a work in progress. When Coach Glance brought me on in 2000, I could see that he wanted to be strong in all three programs (cross country, indoor, outdoor). He didn't want to choose to be strong in one area and be weak in the rest. At the time, he gave us some scholarships and since then, we've been able to really grow and now we've got six scholarships in distance running. It's allowed us to be competitive on a national level. We're to the point now where we are making the national meet every year. The next step was to be a team that competes in the top ten."
On what it would take to win the NCAA Championship:
"It's going to take an unbelievable effort front his group. We don't have to run a perfect race to be there, but we've got to run about as well as we can run. They're a little deeper than us, there's no doubt that the top two teams (Oregon and Oklahoma State) go seven men deep, which allows them to potentially have one or two guys that are off and still be competitive. We've got to be on as a group and be packed fairly tight to be able to pull an upset.
On Tyson David's ability to step up in big time races:
"Right now, he's a fit guy and he's really ready to have an impact in this race. I see him in the top ten along with our other guys having the shot to finish very high in the race. It wouldn't shock me at all if we came away with three or four All-Americans. We've got our top five guys capable of being All-American on any day. If we do that and have four guys in the top 40 then we're going to be one of those teams with a shot. If we have five up there, then it's going to be that much closer."
Quotes from Coach Harvey Glance:
On the rise of the cross country program:
"The vision and goal of our program is to be the best at whatever we do. Having a top five program going into the national championship certainly brings a lot of attention and focus to The University of Alabama and our program. It's what we've strived for, we've gotten as high as No. 2 in the country in track and that was wonderful because everybody knew Alabama had a program and that's what we've done now with the cross country team. I like the position we're in and of course once we get there, anything can happen."
