Saturday, November 02, 2002

Hollywood, S.C. (November 2, 2002) - East Tennessee State's men's cross country team had three finish in the top ten to lead the Buccaneers to a fourth place finish while the women finished sixth at the 2002 Southern Conference Championships held in Hollywood, S.C. Saturday morning. Sophomore Bradley Yewer (Newbury, England) finished fourth, junior David Haefner (Hamburg, N.Y.) finished sixth and 2002 SoCon Freshman-of-the-Year James Grufferty (Glanmire, Ireland) finished eighth to lead the ETSU men's cross country team. Yewer, the 2001 SoCon freshman-of-the-year, finished the 8k run in the time 25:00.79, while Haefner finished in 25:16.79. Grufferty finished the race in 25:17.70, followed by Buccaneer freshman Peter Dalton (Dublin, Ireland) who finished 22nd with a time of 26:03.46. "We are young, and still learning how to compete at this level and race at this level," said head coach Dave Walker. On the women's side, Buccaneer junior Emily Chaney (Maryville, Tenn.) finished 13th to lead ETSU to a sixth place finish running the 5k race in a time of 18:42.65. Freshman Katie Marshall (Metuchen, N.J.) finished 26th (19:20.73) followed by freshman Christine Ward (Candler, N.C.) who finished 42nd with a time of 19:44.88. "This was a good run for us, the team has really improved throughout the season," said assistant coach Michelle Byrne. "We will continue to develop." Appalachian State edged out Chattanooga to sweep the SoCon championship totaling 63 points on the men's side and the women gathering 43.