Fagan buoyed by top award ahead of cross country test
Fagan, a senior at Providence College, is one of the favourites to land the national title in today’s 10k race at Terre Haute after an outstanding final cross country season, which earned him the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Male Athlete of the Year for cross country in the northeast region.
Fagan landed his second-straight BIG EAST Conference individual title in Boston on October 27 and won the NCAA Northeast Regional title for the first time on November 11 in New York. Both victories came by large margins, 22 seconds ahead of the field in Boston as he set a championship course record with a time of 23:09 over 8km.
At the NCAA Northeast Regional in the Bronx, Fagan completed the 10km course 45 seconds in front with a time of 30:40.7. Fagan also has form over today’s course in Terre Haute, having won the Pre-Nationals meet there on October 14.
Last season, Fagan finished the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 16th to earn All-America honours with a time of 30:00.
Fagan’s stiffest competition could come from fifth-ranked Arkansas, whose Irish coach John McDonnell was this weekend chosen as both his conference and region’s Men’s Coach of the Year.
McDonnell was selected SEC Male Coach of the Year for the 12th consecutive time, and 15th overall, after guiding his Razorbacks to another SEC Championship and an NCAA South Central Region Championship.
He has been named National Coach of the Year 12 times in indoor track, 11 times in outdoor track and seven times in cross country for a total of 30 awards.
Meanwhile, Sligo’s Sarah Jayne Boyce and Lisburn’s Rachel Pearson have signed athletic scholarships with McNeese State University in Louisiana. Both will enroll for the 2007-8 season and McNeese coach Brendan Gilroy, a Sligo man, expects both to make an immediate impact on his team.
“Sarah Jayne will run the 800 metres in track but the biggest impact she will have will be in our cross country program. She can come right in and be a leader. For the past few years she has been ranked one of Ireland’s top ten prep runners,” Gilroy said.
Boyce was a student at Mercy Convent and finished fourth in the national cross country championships. She has also run 2:19 at 800m. Pearson, from the City of Lisburn club, was fifth at the Irish national schoolgirls championships over 3000m and third in the Ulster Schools.
She has a PB at the distance of 10:50 and has also run 4:49 in the 1500m and Gilroy added: “She will come in and make an immediate presence on the cross country team. We expect her to be a standout in the distance races in track.”
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