SEWANEE, Tenn. - The Maryville College cross country teams raced in the Southern Athletic Association Championship, finishing sixth and seventh on a tough course, while placing higher than the conference preseason predictions.
The men's team finished seventh in the conference with 207 points.
Tyler Tangel led the way with a 34th place finish and a time of 28:01. James Leneve followed in 45th place with a time of 28:29. The top five Scots were closed out with
Adyn Elliott (67th, 29:37),
Dylan Hall (70th, 29:45), and
Nathan Butler (74th, 30:01). The Scots came close to beating the school team record while also beating their placement in the preseason polls.
Crider and Collins took advantage of the downhill during the race using it to pass competition and improve their performance. Collins stated, "My goal was to stay in the race and pass people. Before the race, Coach [Carringer-Adams] said to take advantage of the downhill and that's what I did". Crider also enjoyed the hill stating, "My favorite part of the race was sliding down the hill into the woods."
Butler was very pleased by the team's regular season performance and is ready to finish well at regionals. "For regionals, it's time to take down our season goal of the team average time. We have the time over the year and we just have to put it all together and execute and we'll break it easily."
The women's team finished off their record breaking season with a sixth place conference finish and 172 points.
Megan Shinn finished first for the Scots, coming in 30th place with a time of 25:03. This closed off an incredible regular season for Shinn who had many record performances and one of the schools best individual season performances.
Catherine Money finished next with a time of 25:35 in39th place.
Charlotte Wilson (49th, 26:12), Madison Adair (61st, 26:57), and
Emma Lathinghouse (26:59) rounded out the teams scoring. The Scots had a very successful 2026 regular season with some of the best team performances in school history.
The Maryville women's and men's cross country teams exceeded their preseason expectations, with both teams finishing two places higher than their projected rankings. Adair said, "I think we executed these goals; both teams placed better than our expected ranks by two places. And looking at our times and individual places, the girls were right next to each other throughout the race and the boys stayed with each other for the first half of the race."
Coach Carringer-Adams was pleased with the season and how the team faced adversity. "Today our team's goals were what we have been training for all season: to beat preseason rankings, grow as a team through not only times, but also pack running, team placement, and confidence. Today's course was a tougher one, however, we had quite a few runners run season bests, or they were just seconds off their personal records. On courses like today, you have to look at the whole picture, which is placement, race strategy and growth as an overall runner. Our teams did a great job of pack running, especially within the first mile and they [team] then finished the race all back to back to back. They focused on passing, especially in the woods part of the course and staying strong for their teammates. Because of this, both programs placed two spots better than the preseason rankings. The women's team ran the third fastest team average time at a conference championship for Maryville, and the men ran the second fastest team average time at a conference championship for the College. This program has grown so much in the last few years and are continuing to get better each year, not just at times, but as overall runners and individuals. I'm so very proud of their growth."
Charlotte Wilson and
Gavin Hill were both named SAA All-Sportsmanship for the 2026 season. The Scots will close out their season in two weeks on November 14th at the NCAA Regionals in Lynchburg, VA.
