Joey Humes can now add an All-American title to his list of running accolades.
The lone Charger to compete in the men's 2018 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships took 25th place, finishing in 33:04.4. Today's race certainly was not conducive to speedy running.
This course required several loops on its many hills and tight curves. Tack on the pounding of 261 pairs of spikes over the course of 10,000 meters and you have a muddy mess.
On Oct. 20 Slippery Rock University hosted the Pre-National meet on the same course in Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Humes took 4th out of 306 runners at that 8k race with an average mile pace of 5:05. While paces could be expected to slow as distance increases, Humes finished today's 10k in a 5:19 pace, even with the extremely difficult conditions.
Humes had a successful sophomore cross country season. He earned four G-MAC Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week awards, took first in three meets and made the Midwest All-Region Team. He's battled through some tough and muddy races, such as the G-MAC conference meet, but that only prepared him for today's meet. He was ready for when it mattered most.
In 2018 he qualified for both of the indoor and outdoor track national meets, but never quite earned the All-American status. Now with one under his belt, it will be exciting to see what this speedster can do on the track.
PHOTO: Slippery Rock University
WORDS: Calli Townsend