Prairie View Wins First SWAC Cross-Country Championship

By Dustin Daniel
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Gitonga M'Mbijjewe Alonzo Thomas finishes first in SWAC championship race.

For the first time in its history, Prairie View A&M University won the Southwestern Athletic Conference cross country championship. The men's team at the Texas university captured first, second, third and 10th place finishes en route to a 31-point total on Oct. 31, topping second-place Southern University by 23 points.

Leading all runners was freshman Alonzo Thomas, with a time of 27:42.92. Teammates Matthew Jones, a freshman, followed with a 28:02.41 and junior Thomas Rivera closed out the dynamic trio with a time of 28:03.51. Sophomore Tyrone Russell completed the list of top 10 performers with a 29:18.16 finish.

"After the second mile, I felt good about my chances to finish in front of the pack," said Thomas. "We have great coaches (Clifton Gilliard and Chris Clay) who prepared us for today's championship. It feels really great to capture a SWAC title in my first year of competition."

Gilliard was named SWAC coach of the year, while Thomas, Jones and Rivera received first team all-SWAC honors. Russell earned a spot on the second team for his top 10 finish.

"These guys have worked hard all season long," said Gilliard. "Coming into the meet they had their minds made up that they were going to give their best performance toward winning the conference championship. Our front three have been performing great all year long, but I didn't think we would be so far ahead."

Southern finished in second place with 54 points, followed by defending champion Jackson State with 110 points.

Dustin Daniel, a student at Prairie View A&M University, writes for the Panther.

Posted Nov. 9, 2005