Tangel Runs to Rookie of the Year

CCS Release
Complete Results

CLINTON, Miss. – Maryville capped an encouraging men's cross country season with a fourth-place team result Friday at the 2024 Collegiate Conference of the South Championships.
 
Tyler Tangel led the way for the Scots, earning not only All-CCS Second Team honors but also CCS Rookie of the Year. He is the first Maryville men's runner to earn either distinction since the Scots joined the league three years ago.
 
Tangel covered the 8K distance in 28 minutes and 39.5 seconds.
 
"He had a strong performance today, both athletically by passing runners throughout the race but also as a teammate by turning around to walk back down the course as soon as he finished to go cheer on the other Scots to the line," Maryville head coach Kaitlin Carringer-Adams said. "We knew he would have to run tough to be able to place in the top 10 today."
 
Throughout the race, the top eight runners were spread out in the front – followed by a large pack of about 15 runners. Once the race entered its third mile, Tangel and two other competitors pulled away and Tangel made his move to climb into the top 10.
 
"It was another great day for our growing program," Carringer-Adams said.
 
Maryville's goal going into the race was finishing better than last year's fifth-place result and this year's preseason prediction of fifth. The Scots cleared both benchmarks to finish in the No. 4 spot.
 
Best Conference Showing Since 2016
It was their best team placement at a conference championship meet since 2016 at the USA South Championships, when they also claimed fourth place.
 
"The team knew every place mattered and held onto their positions or moved up throughout the race," Carringer-Adams said. "Paul Kanios, who is normally our sixth runner, really helped the team out today by running a PR and finishing as our fourth runner. Wyatt Crider, Sam Cocchia and Jonathan Yost all ran PRs today too." 
 
Steve Cope finished 17th for the Scots in 29:06.04, followed by James LeNeve 34th in 30:51.22 for 28 points. Kanios came home in 36th place in 30:57.28, scoring 29 points; followed closely by Terry Gonzalez in 38th place with a time of 31:11.00 for 30 points.
 
Crider posted his PR time of 32:40.00, followed by PRs of 33:25.14 from Cocchia and 33:35.99 from Hernandez.
 
Cope also earned CCS All-Sportsmanship Team honors after being nominated by the Maryville coaching staff.
 
"Steven is always encouraging to our athletes and other teams," Carringer-Adams said. "He always tries to motivate our team and cares a lot about our program."