Tusculum’s Holzapfel, Smith Named Cross Country Runners Of The Week

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Tusculum College's Simon Holzapfel and Robin Smith have been named the South Atlantic Conference Cross Country Runners of the Week, the league announced today.

Holzapfel, a junior from Nuremberg, Germany (Neves Gymnasium Nuremberg) won his third individual title in as many meets by capturing first place honors at the Camp Bethel Open, hosted by the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Holzapfel won the 5,000-meter race with a time of 15:56, outdistancing himself from the second place runner by over a minute-and-a-half. He has already won the Stampede at the Shoals and the Wingate University Invitational so far this season.

Simon Holzapfel

Robin Smith

Holzapfel owns eight of the top ten 8K times in school history, including the top five. In 2008, he garnered All-NCAA Division II Southeast Region honors and finished runner-up in the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference championship. He has a 4.00 cumulative grade point average and was a 2008-09 Academic All-American.

Smith finished second at the Camp Bethel Open with a 5K time of 21:53 on a very sloppy lay-out.

Smith, a graduate student from Greenwood, S.C., has been Tusculum's top runner in all three meets this season, including a 10th place finish at the Stampede at the Shoals. The Winthrop University transfer is serving double-time this season, also playing on the Tusculum women's soccer team.