For Immediate Release
October 14, 2000


RC Men Win State Division III Meet
Loesel and Smith Top Maroon Runners

NEWPORT NEWS, VA— The Roanoke College men’s cross country team captured the championship of the Virginia Division III meet on Saturday, accumulating 55 points and beating eight other state teams. It is the first state championship for the Maroons in over 10 years. In all, the Maroon men had five of the top 20 scoring spots in the race, led by junior Laurence Loesel (Roanoke, VA/Cave Spring). On the women’s side, senior Casey Smith (Mechanicsville, VA/Atlee) won the individual championship with a time of 17:59, guiding the women to a third place result.

Loesel led the men to the overall championship, placing ninth overall with a personal-best time of 26:41. In all, Roanoke’s top six runners established new personal-bests in the race. Blake Dalton’s (Gretna, VA/Altavista) time of 26:59 was good enough for 12th, while Jason Belt (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster) was one spot behind Dalton with a mark of 27:00. Robert Welch (Seekonk, MA/Seekonk) and Stephen Wheatley (Cockeysville, MD/Dulaney) topped off RC’s top 20 scoring finishers with 17th and 22nd, respectively.

After sitting out last week’s race at Radford, Smith returned to action to post a 17:59 at the state meet, and help the RC women to a third overall finish. The Maroons had 84 points on the day, trailing only Mary Washington and Christopher Newport. RC’s second place competitor, Alli McVey (Bowdoinham, ME/Mt. Ararat) also ran a personal-best, finishing the race in 19:43 which was the day’s 10th best run. Jenny Kincaid (Mt. Sidney, VA/Fort Definace) was 12th overall (19:58), while Meaghan Giberson (Wilton, ME/Mt. Blue) ran the best race of her career with a 21:06.

The Maroons next run at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship race, which will be held in Lexington, VA on October 28th.