Photo by Aaron Gillihan Photo by Je!1 Montgomery 1998 Men 's Track Team: Front Row: Connor Grimes, Tommy Noel, Seth Crum, Matthew Dabbs, Fred Strathmann Back Row: Japheth Langat, Jonah Tanui, Jerry Maritim, Lee Shirey, Albert Tabut, Nick Letsinger, Richard Ashlock Distance runners cotne up big for Bisons The Bisons had to make a rough transition from the NAIA to the 'NCAA Division II in 1998 and the men's track team had to utilize the experience of th eir longdistance runners to gai n their fifth place finish at the Lone Star Conference (LSC) meet at Texas A&M Kingsvill e. Seni or Seth Crum had a great collegiate fina le as he had a comefrom-behind victory in the 10,080meter race at the conference meet. "Seth has played a key role on our team in the past couple of years," Coach Bryan Phillips said. "Seth had his best run of hi s collegiate career as he ran a strong 32:15." Senior Jonah Tanui won the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:19.5, a national meet qualifying mark. "It felt great to win the race; it was a really big achievement for me because the Lone Star Conference is such a tough division with very strong teams and it has some really good runners,"Tanui said. "Jonah 's performance was nothing less than outstanding," Phillips said. "Jonah had donewell throughout the year, and we were expecting a strong fini sh from one ofHarding's best distance runners ever." Junior coll ege transfer Jerry Maritimwon the5,000-meterwith a time of 14:39.9. "Jerry has been a great asset to our team, " Phillips said. "Hi s maturity and experience has helped us throughout the season. Weare hoping to use Jerry on our cross country team in the future . He definit e ly has the potential to break severa l of Harding's records. " Maritim was excited to have competed aga in st nationall y recognized NCAA II compet itors. Cl It's a great experience and an opportunity to race against guys that have so much potential ," Maritim said. "Harding has done a lot in the past coupl e of years. I think that, with time, we will be an even stronger team thatwill always be in competition with the other schools for first place." Harding had to face several nationally recogn ized teams within its di vis ion. Perennial powers Abilene Chri st ian University and Texas A&MI Kingsville are two of the top track schools in the country. "It's going to take a wh il e before we can compete closely with ACU and Kingsville ," Phillips said. "Although we have a few outstanding athl etes, it's go ing to take more. To compete against opponents like ACU, we are going to have to have an outstanding team all around. It is going to take some time to catch upwi th schools that have been in the LSC for a wh ile," Phillips said. - Philip Murphy LSC All Conference Seth Crum Jerry Maritim Jonah Tanui LSC Academic All Conference Seth Crum Jonathan Dandy GTE Academic All American District VI Seth Crum Jonathan Dandy MEN'S T RACK 211 •
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