Men’s Cross Country Sweeps the CAA Post-Season Awards

Landry, Burke, Gibby Honored for Season Accomplishments

12/07/07 1:05PM

RICHMOND, VA - The Colonial Athletic Association announced the winners of its men’s cross country post-season awards today, with the William and Mary Tribe sweeping all three awards for the fifth time in the past seven years.

Three-time All-American Christo Landry (Falls Church, Va.) was picked as the Athlete of the Year after the best all-around season of his career. At the CAA Championships, Landry posted the second-fastest time in conference history, 23:58.9, to win his first CAA title and lead the Tribe to the team championship. At the Southeast Regional, he finished fourth to earn his third All-Region certificate and lead the team to a third-place finish, enabling them to be selected to the NCAA Championships. Once there, Landry shifted to a higher gear than his opponents in the last 5,000m to move up more than 20 places and finish 13th. Only Hal Michael ’71 and Matt Lane ’01 have finished higher at the NCAA Championships for W&M, and Landry joins Lane as the only two harriers to earn three All-American certificates in cross country.

Freshman Tom Burke (Edina, Minn.) was selected as the CAA Rookie of the Year, becoming the first Tribe athlete since Landry in 2004 to win the award. He was the highest-placing freshman from any school at the CAA Championships, timing 25:01.8 for eighth place and a spot on the all-conference team. He opened the season as W&M’s top runner at the Lou Onesty Invitational, and finished 34th at the Colonial Inter-Regional in his second collegiate race. At the Pre-National Invitational, Burke finished 17th in the Open Race, and finished his season as part of W&M’s third-place team effort at the IC4A Championships.

Head coach Alex Gibby ’97 continued his stranglehold on the Coach of the Year award, winning his fifth award in five years at the helm. This season, he led the Tribe to the most dominating performance in CAA history at the conference championships, placing 10 runners on the All-CAA team of 12 (11 in the top-13, and none lower than 16th) and scoring a conference-record 16 points, one shy of the “perfect score” of 15 points. Two weeks later, W&M upset No. 9 Virginia at the Southeast Regional, finishing in third place, only five points out of first. Invited to the NCAA Championships for the 11th year in a row, the Tribe finished 15th out of 31 teams. This is the ninth year in a row that the College’s coach has won the CAA Coach of the Year award, and the 17th time in the last 20 years.

CAA Men’s Cross Country Award Winners and All-CAA Team
CAA Athlete of the Year: Christo Landry, W&M
CAA Rookie of the Year: Tom Burke, W&M
CAA Coach of the Year: Alex Gibby, W&M

All-Conference Team (Top-12 finishers at the CAA Championships)
Christo Landry, W&M
Dave Mock, W&M
Patterson Wilhelm, W&M
Rob Dennis, W&M
Robert Krause, GMU
Charlie Swartz, W&M
Drew Midland, W&M
Tom Burke, W&M
Jay Morrill, GSU
James Picard, W&M
Pete Asaro, W&M
Karl Lang, W&M