YORK, Pa. - Salisbury University gained 11 positions while the University of Mary Washington placed nine former standouts on the Capital Athletic Conference's Silver Anniversary Men's Cross Country Team. Three-time CAC Athlete of the Year Jeff Olenick of Goucher College along with York College of Pa. grad Tim Hartung, a three-time championship race winner and one of four two-time Men's Cross Country Athletes of the Year, lead the 25-member unit.
Entering its 25th year of varsity competition, the CAC selected a Silver Anniversary Team in 19 championship sports, primarily based on season-ending conference awards as voted by the conference coaches. Each Silver Anniversary Team will feature 25 former or current standouts. Men's and women's indoor track & field, which became a CAC championship sport in 2012, was combined with men's and women's outdoor track & field. The Silver Anniversary Golf Team has just eight members because the sport was added to the CAC championships list just seven years ago.
The teams will be announced early in the regular-season for its respective sport. Each Silver Anniversary Team honoree will receive a commemorative gift from the conference, and many will be recognized by their institution/alma mater at some time during the academic year.
The University of Mary Washington, a charter member of the CAC, led the conference with 153 current and former student-athletes on the Silver Anniversary Teams, including 40 in men's and women's tennis combined. Salisbury University, which joined the CAC in the 1994-95 athletic season, was second with 121 Silver Anniversary Team honorees. CAC charter members York College of Pa. (59) and St. Mary's College of Md. (35) were next in line for most Silver Anniversary Team honorees.
The CAC was organized as a six-team affiliation in 1989 and began championship competition with the winter sports during the 1990-91 season. Membership changes in the last decade ultimately created a 10-team conference that has become one of the strongest in NCAA Division III.
CAC teams have won 18 national team championships, and dozens of other teams have finished in among the top four in NCAA Division III competition.
In 2013-14, the CAC advanced more than 25 teams to post-season competition. Four CAC athletic programs finished among the Top 60 in the final Learfield Cup – the only conference in the Middle Atlantic Region to accomplish that feat. One team won a national championship (Salisbury University women's lacrosse) and three others played in the national championship game. Nineteen CAC teams won at least one game in NCAA Tournament competition and 10 advanced to at least the NCAA Sweet 16.
In the last two years, CAC student-athletes have combined to win six individual national championships at NCAA swimming or track & field competitions. The CAC student-athletes collected a record 11 Capital One Academic All-America awards in 2013-14 as well as an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship and the Josten's Award, recognizing a Division III women's basketball player for her achievements on the court, in the classroom and contributions to the community.
In the classroom, the CAC boasts 81 Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, including one Academic All-American of the Year award winner, 12 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship winners, five NCAA Elite 89 award winners, two Honda year-end award winners and a Josten's Award winner in women's basketball. The CAC also features an annual Academic Honor Roll that recently honored nearly 1,200 students for their academic achievements. Thousands of other student-athletes have received Player of the Year, All-America or All-Region recognition in their respective sports.
Olenick is the only three-time CAC Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year, capturing the award in 1997, 1999 and 2000. Olenick and Hartung are the only three-time conference championship race winners.
Hartung, who completed his collegiate eligibility last year, won the CAC cross country individual title in 2011, '12 and '13, and was picked by the CAC coaches as the Athlete of the Year in his junior and senior seasons. He also won the CAC Athlete of the Year award three times during the indoor and outdoor track & field seasons, tying the former Spartan All-American for the second-highest total of CAC Athlete of the Year awards in a career (five).
Three other Silver Anniversary honorees were two-time CAC Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year award winners during their career - Mary Washington's Jon Gates (1995 and '96) and Frank DeVar (2008 and '09) and Catholic University of America's Michael Audette (2001 and '02).
Salisbury's Larry O'Hara, Will Murdoch, Eric Buck Stokes and Chris Barnard joined Olenick, Hartung, Audette, Gates and DeVar as the only eight runners to to earn first-team All-CAC men's cross country recognition all four years of their careers.
CAC Men's Cross Country Silver Anniversary Team Honorees
Name, Final Year of Competition, Institution
Michael Audette, 2003, Catholic University of America
Chris Barnard, 2010, Salisbury University
Jeremy Beall, 2001, Salisbury University
Murray Chesno, 1992, University of Mary Washington
Frank DeVar, 2009, University of Mary Washington
Zack Dickerson, 2008, Salisbury University
Jon Gates, 1996, University of Mary Washington
Justin Gerbereux, 1996, University of Mary Washington
Tristan Gilbert, 2003, Salisbury University
Eric Graves, 2007, Salisbury University
Jeff Hankins, 1994, Salisbury University
Tim Hartung, 2013, York College of Pa.
Travis Jones, 2000, University of Mary Washington
Justin Kirk, 2006, University of Mary Washington
Scott Koehler, 2005, Salisbury University
Todd Kronenberg, 2004, University of Mary Washington
Will Murdoch, 2006, Salisbury University
Larry O'Hara, 2000, Salisbury University
Jeff Olenick, 2000, Goucher College
Scott Plunkett, 2012, University of Mary Washington
Kevin Probst, 1995, Goucher College
Max Snavlin, 1998, Salisbury University
Eric Stokes, 2007, Salisbury University
Jason Van Horn, 1999, University of Mary Washington
Chris Young, 1995, York College of Pa.