Colorado College's Castaneda Selected SCAC Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach-of-the-Year

(Portions of this story taken from the Colorado College athletics website)

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.
 -- Colorado College's Ted Castaneda has been selected Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Coach-of-the-Year for both men's and women's cross country in exclusive voting by the head coaches in the conference. Men's Results | Women's Results

The CC Tigers swept both the men's and women's team titles on Saturday, November 1 at Boerne City Lake Park - just outside of San Antonio, Texas. It was the first men's title for Colorado College since the Tigers won three straight SCAC titles from 2009-2011. The championship on the women's side represents the program's first-ever SCAC cross country title.

On the men's side, senior Nick Hall became the second Colorado College runner to win three individual conference titles as he led the Tigers to the 2014 SCAC men's cross country team championship.

The Tigers avenged a one-point loss to Trinity University at last year's conference meet by placing five runners in the top 11 spots for 30 team points, eight better than the Texas Tigers. 
 
Hall cruised to the individual title by covering the 8k course in 26:37, 48 seconds faster than the second-place finisher Taylor Piske of Trinity. He joins Jackson Brainerd (2009-11) as CC's only three-time conference champions. Sophomore Ryan Bing also ran an outstanding race, finishing third with a time of 27:48 as the Tigers denied Trinity its third consecutive conference title.

Hall produced an outstanding race on Saturday after an up-and-down regular season due to injuries and unforeseeable events. The two-time reigning SCAC Runner of the Year battled a nagging injury at the start of the campaign and his best finish of the season prior to Saturday was 10th place at the Rust Buster Invitational. His season also included a 78th place finish at the CC Invitational after he stopped during the race to aid a Fort Lewis runner who needed medical attention.
 
In addition, the Tigers travelled to the meet without senior Graham Frank, consistently the team's top runner this season, who was forced to stay home with a leg injury.
 
CC more than made up for Frank's absence, as sophomore Conor Terhune and junior Tucker Hampson also posted top 10 finishes by placing seventh (28:15) and eighth (28:18), respectively. Fellow junior Jacob Rothman rounded out the scoring for CC with an 11th place finish in 28:28, while senior Sam English placed 12th in 28:31 and freshman Ethan Holland was 16th in 29:11.
 
The six runners that finished in the top 14, Hall, Bing, Terhune, Hampson, Rothman and English, all earned a spot on the 2014 all-conference team.

On the women's side, led by individual champion Leah Wessler, the Colorado College women's cross country team captured its first-ever Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference team title. The Tigers had five runners finish in the top 10 and scored 26 points, three better than two-time defending champion Trinity University. 

Wessler became the first individual champ from Colorado College at the SCAC women's meet, covering the 6k course in 23:17, 36 seconds faster than her teammate, senior Rebecca Lavietes, who finished second in 23:53.

Runners from Trinity claimed the 3-5 positions, but Colorado College sophomores Stefani Messick (24:25) and Katie Sandfort (24:35) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, and freshman Patty Atkinson ran a personal-best 24:44 for a 10th place finish to clinch the team title for CC.
 
In addition to the five runners that finished in the top 10, sophomore Allie Crimmins and junior Beryl Coulter also earned all-conference honors by finishing 12th and 13th, respectively.  

Since his programs joined the conference prior to the 2006 season, Castaneda has been honored as SCAC Men's Cross Country Coach-of-the-Year five times while the honor is his first for his work with the women.

Castaneda has served as head coach of the men's cross country team at CC since 1980 and took over as head coach for women's cross country in 1993.