UNCP's Ndhlovu, Schroll Advance to National Championships

Results

CHARLOTTE- The UNCP men's cross country team matched the same finish as the last two seasons at the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Championships with the exception of Pardon Ndhlovu becoming race champion and Chris Schroll finishing fourth to lead UNCP to a fifth place finish in the meet Saturday morning at McAlpine Park hosted by Queens University of Charlotte.

Ndhlovu collected his fourth first place finish this season, and first ever region title as he was 14 seconds faster than the second place finisher from Queens with a time of 30:55.5, while Schroll set a new personal-best in by more than a minute with a time of 31:19.7 as he finished behind two runners from Queens. With Ndhlovu and Schroll being the top two finishers not on either of the top two teams, they advance to the national championship race in two weeks.

Zach Bayless cracked the top-20 with a 19th place finish after posting a personal-best time of 32:48.4 as he was the third finisher for the Braves. Senior Kevin Clancy was the fourth runner to finish for the Braves and 37th finisher overall as he clipped less than a second off his previous personal-best time to register a new one with a time of 33:11.1.

Freshman Jeremy Judd and Andrew Nguyen finished with time of 33:51.4 and 34:31.1, respectively. Judd was the fifth finisher for UNCP and 65th overall, while Nguyen finished 85th as both ran in their first career 10k race. Cedric Wilson rounded out the finishers for the Black and Gold with a time of 35:32.7 to set a new personal-best for the sophomore.

The 10k race was primarily run on limestone with the Black and Gold finishing fifth out of 24 teams. UNCP collected 123 points and was the first PBC team to finish the race. The Black and Gold finished 84 points in front of PBC Champion Augusta State who finished seventh overall.

Queens (N.C.) and Mount Olive advance to the 2011 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championship race after finishing first (62 points) and second (82 points), respectively. The 2011 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships takes place on November 19 in Spokane, Wash., at Plantes Ferry Athletic Complex.

Augusta State finished seventh in the regional, just ahead of Columbus State in eighth and Clayton State in ninth.  ASU's Dustin Ross ran the 10k in 32:44 while Clayton State's Albert Mong'ony as 21st in 32:50.  Columbus State's John Neill cracked the top 20 with a time of 32:34 for 18th.

Georgia College's Tyler Mattix finished 17th overall in 32:41.  The Bobcats as a team finished 14th, one behind Flagler in 13th. Corey Mundy was the first Flagler Saint to cross the line in a time of 33:09.  Montevallo finished 21st and Francis Marion 23rd.