University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
A-Sun Championships
Eubanks Garners First Team All-Conference Honors at A-Sun Championships
10/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Jacksonville, Fla. – Griffin Eubanks led the USC Upstate cross country team with a fifth place finish at the A-Sun Championships to earn First Team All-Conference accolades Friday morning from the John Hayt Golf Learning Center.
Eubanks becomes the first Upstate men's runner since Gilbert Kemboi in 2012 to be named First Team All-Conference and is the third Spartan in program history to be named All-Conference multiple times along with Kemboi and Davey Dennison.
The Upstate men began the morning with a fourth place finish, led by Eubanks, with an average time of 26:14.93.
Eubanks turned in a season-best time in the 8K of 25:04.29, besting his old mark by nearly 27 seconds compiled two weeks ago at the Wake Forest Invitational. The senior just missed setting a new personal-best by less than a second which he achieved last year at the College of Charleston Invitational with a 25:03.20.
Theodore Kountourogiannis was one of three Spartans to record a personal-best time on Friday as he placed 16th with a time of 25:53.55. Abraham Hernandez and Marcus Miles also set new personal-bests as Hernandez ran a 28:07.32 to place 42nd and Miles was 44th after completing the course in 28:24.86.
Alex Love, Martin Morrow and Mark Rennix each posted season-best times as the trio crossed the finish line within 15 seconds of each other in positions 28-30. Love was 28th with a time of 26:39.57, Morrow 29th at 26:42.53 and Rennix 30th at 26:54.67.
Dorian Jones followed Love, Morrow and Rennix in 33rd place with a time of 27:11.88, and Ereck Lewis was 49th after he ran a 29:09.34.
The Upstate women had an average time of 20:19.55 to finish in seventh place led by Ashleigh Torres who compiled a personal-best time in the 5K of 19:28.57 en route to a 35th place performance. Torres was one of two Spartans to post personal-best times as Haley McCoy placed 48th following her time of 20:49.11.
Upstate had three athletes finish Friday's race with season-best marks in Anastasia Kolesnitchenko, Essence Jackson and Rebecca Elliott. Kolesnitchenko was 38th with her time of 19:37.92, while Jackson added a 46th place showing at 20:35.78 and Elliott came in 50th after running the course in 21:06.37.
Molly Bliss and Kelsey Warren rounded out the women's race for the Spartans in 52nd and 56th places, respectively. Bliss posted a time of 21:14.40 and Warren a 22:02.15.
Lipscomb took home both the men's and women's team championships, while North Florida's Logan Poteet won the men's race and Madelin Talbert of Lipscomb the women's race.
Upstate heads to Charlottesville, Va. on Nov. 14 for the NCAA Southeast Regionals.
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