Men's Cross Country

Men's Cross Country All-Conference Awards: PP's Florsheim Athlete of the Year

The 2023 Men’s Cross Country All-SCIAC Teams have been released following Saturday’s SCIAC Championship. First Team All-SCIAC honors are determined by the top 10 finishers at the conference meet, while the Second Team consists of finishers 11-20. The Newcomer, Ray Adkinson and Coaching Staff of the Year accolades are voted on by the league’s member head coaches in consultation with their teams.

Pomona-Pitzer Colleges’ Lucas Florsheim is the Athlete of the Year after a superb effort leading a host of his teammates to the team title. he ran with teammates Derek Fearon and Cameron Hatler early before distancing himself as runner-up Rohan Agrawal of Caltech moved into a clear second position. Florsheim crossed the finish line at 24:44.3 for a nine-second victory after finishing second in 2022 and seventh in 2021. 

Teammate Peter Neid became the Sagehens’ second consecutive Newcomer of the Year honoree after matching the 20th-place finish of last year’s winner, Jack Stein. With five seconds to spare, Neid made the All-SCIAC Second Team as the top rookie finisher in the field with a time of 25:46.8. 

The Ray Adkinson Award, named for the sport’s inaugural conference champion from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in 1915, was presented to Fearon, the 2022 SCIAC Athlete of the Year and a history major who has compiled a 3.97 cumulative grade-point average at Pomona College, where he also plays the viola in the orchestra and serves as a liaison in the French department. An All-Conference selection in each year he has competed as well as All-West Region and All-America in his first two seasons to this point, he has been instrumental in the Sagehens winning back-to-back NCAA West Region team titles and the 2021 national championship. He is a vocal team leader who pushes everyone to compete fairly with high character, even urging his teammates on at every practice while recovering from injury earlier in his senior season and coming back to place third at this year’s championship race. 

Caltech’s Kelli Blake was honored with Coaching Staff of the Year recognition after leading the Beavers to a tie for third place at the championship meet, including two individual First Team All-Conference performances. The Orange and White rebounded from a fifth-place finish in 2022, where they were also picked in the Preseason Poll, to edge the Leopards, who have been ranked as high as No. 26 in the nation this season, on a tiebreaker.

The Sagehens once again led all teams with five First Team and nine total All-Conference performers, with Colin Kirkpatrick and Stein cracking the top 10 behind Florsheim, Fearon and Hatler. CMS was next with five, led by Oliver Pick in sixth place. Caltech and the University of La Verne tied with two apiece as the Beavers’ Joey Litvin snuck onto the First Team in 10th behind Agarwal and TK Berhe paced the Leopards in fifth. Amir Barkan made the First Team for Occidental College while the University of Redlands’ David Huggins rounded out the Second Team.

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Athlete
of the Year

Newcomer
of the Year

Ray Adkinson
Award

Coaching
Staff of the Year

  Lucas Florsheim  
Pomona-Pitzer

Peter Neid
  Pomona-Pitzer    

Derek Fearon
  Pomona-Pitzer   

Kelli Blake
Caltech

 
First Team All-SCIAC
Name Institution Year Hometown
Lucas Florsheim Pomona-Pitzer Sr. Milwaukee, Wis.
Rohun Agrawal Caltech Jr. Cupertino, Calif.
Derek Fearon Pomona-Pitzer Sr. Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Cameron Hatler Pomona-Pitzer Jr. Eatonville, Wash.
TK Berhe La Verne Jr. San Diego, Calif.
Oliver Pick CMS Jr. Ventura, Calif.
Colin Kirkpatrick Pomona-Pitzer Sr. Queenstown, New Zealand
Jack Stein Pomona-Pitzer So. Piedmont, Calif.
Amir Barkan Occidental Jr. San Anselmo, Calif.
Joey Litvin Caltech Sr. Ardmore, Pa.
Second Team All-SCIAC
Name Institution Year Hometown
Hayden Beauchemin CMS So. San Clemente, Calif.
AJ Reyes La Verne Gr. Claremont, Calif.
Nicholas Taubenheim CMS Sr. Westport, Conn.
Daniel Fajardo CMS Jr. Portland, Ore.
Owen Koebett Pomona-Pitzer Sr. Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Ian Horsburgh Pomona-Pitzer Sr. Newton, Mass.
Evan Villano Pomona-Pitzer Sr. Eugene, Ore.
Adam Sage CMS Jr. Los Altos, Calif.
David Huggins Redlands So. Texarkana, Texas
Peter Neid Pomona-Pitzer Fy. Denver, Colo.
 

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