Men’s cross country sixth

Led by senior Ted Herbert and junior Allen Carr, the JMU men’s cross country team took sixth place in Saturday’s regional race in Greenville, N.C.

Herbert and Carr earned all-regional honors, finishing the 10-kilometer (6.2 mile) race in 12th and 19th places, respectively.

In the race’s opening stretch, Carr, in second place, stayed on the heels of race leader, Liberty University’s Josh McDoogal.

"My strategy was to go out in the front and see how long I can stay there," Carr said.

Herbert and sophomore C.W. Moran caught up to Carr after the first kilometer. Running close together, Herbert came in through the 3-mile mark with a time of 14:36, with Carr and Moran a second behind.

"Because it was a bigger field, we were supposed to just run our own races," Herbert said. "But because we’re so used to it, we ended up just running together anyway."

Shortly after the 3-mile mark, the field began to widen. Herbert stayed in the front pack, coming through in a time of 30:33, just 12 seconds away from qualifying for the national championship.

"Last year, I just missed being all-region," Herbert said. "So this year it was important to get the all-region spot."

Carr came through the finish line with a time of 30:54, followed by Moran in 31:17. The team also received significant help from sophomore Bryan Backland, who broke into the top 50, placing 49th.

"Looking back, we were trying to get those next group of guys into the top 50," Herbert said. "So that was significant that Bryan was able to do that."

Junior Nick Noe, freshman Ted Stevenson, and freshman James Printz rounded out the top 7 for the Dukes.