Mary Baldwin's Nicky Black collected four individual awards Saturday, helping the women's cross country team to third place in the USA South Championship meet at North Carolina Wesleyan University. In the men's chase, MBU had some strong individual performances as the team finished fifth in the final standings.
Black won the individual championship, covering the 6K course in 23:17.0, four seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Black was presented plaques for winning the USA South title, earning first-team all-conference and being voted by the conference coaches as the 2024 Runner of the Year and the Newcomer of the year.
She is the first MBU runner to be named Rookie of the Year since Kali Carr in 2015, and the first individual champion and Runner of the Year since Sophia Stone won the awards for the second-straight year in 2012.
Joining Black on the all-conference team was senior
Caroline Motley, who finished ninth overall in 24:37.6 to earn second-team recognition. It's the first time MBU had a first team and second team all-conference award winners in the same season since 2014, when Wendy Diputla was a second-team all-star along with first-team honoree Stone.
Also contributing to MBU's team score were senior Chloe Manzingo (23rd, 28:23.9), freshman
Ashley Bennett (24th, 28:41.8) and senior Johannah Dilloway (26th, 29:16.0). The Fighting Squirrels' team score of 78 points trailed only champion Southern Virginia (35) and second-place Pfeiffer (51) and ahead of fourth-place Meredith (86). It's the first time MBU finished third in the final women's standings since 2015.
In the men's championship, senior
Brendan Plogger was MBU's top runner with a personal best time of 29:55.9 to finish 25th overall. He led the Fighting Squirrels to fifth place of the eight teams participating in the race with 137 points.
Also scoring for MBU were sophomore
Daniel Diaczyszyn (37th, 33:32.5), junior David Shultz (38th, 33:55.2), freshman Lapatrick Bridges (40th, 36:30.9) and junior
Brandon Jones (41st, 38.12.8). More than half the MBU runners in both races had personal best performances on the NC Wesleyan course.
Top five team scoring in the men's champion showed Pfeiffer on top with 19 points, followed by Southern Virginia (38), Brevard (98), Methodist (101) and Mary Baldwin (137).
On Nov. 16, Black and Motley will represent MBU in the NCAA South Regional championship at Jackson, MS. The top seven individual finishers, not including those runners representing the top two teams, will advance to the NCAA Championship on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, IN.
