Llano running in NCAA championship on Monday

The University of Richmond men's cross-country team will send a runner to the NCAA National Championship for the first time in 29 years.

Junior Matt Llano finished seventh in the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship with a time of 30:28.5 in the 10-kilometer race at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, N.C., Saturday. He was the top finisher of the Atlantic-10 Conference, beating the A-10 champion, junior Dentamo Adu of Charlotte, who finished 14th in 31:01.0.

Llano, the A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year and an NCAA Academic All-American, advances to the national championship meet next weekend in Terre Haute, Ind., at Indiana State University. He is the seventh runner to advance to the NCAA Championship in school history.

"When I first started running, I always imagined myself going to the NCAA Championships and I didn't think it would happen so soon," Llano said. "This past year, I've just started to realize my potential and started to realize the sacrifices I would have to make to achieve it."

He made better running decisions and gained more experience during the past year, which has made him a better athlete, he said. Llano's confidence rose after he won the Navy Salty Dog Invitational in Annapolis, Md., in September, he said.

"As we went through each race, I just got more and more confident," he said. "It just started to feel that it was more and more of a possibility that I could go to the national championships."

The men's cross-country team finished eighth overall in the Invitational. Junior Andrew Benford was 29th with 31:37.1, freshman Levi Grandt was 53rd (32:14.8), sophomore Tim Quinn was 60th (32:23.5), junior Jon Wilson was 62nd (33:28.4), freshman Tim Smith was 105th (33:20.5) and senior Sean Welsh was 127th (33:48.8), according to the athletics department's Web site.

The women's team had sophomore Nicol Traynor finish 14th in the 6K race with a time of 21:29.1 and freshman Katie Spratford's time was 21:53.4 to finish 33rd. The team finished eighth overall.

The College of William and Mary won the men's meet and the University of Virginia won the women's race.

The men's team has young, talented runners that could make it to the national championship in the next few years, coach Steve Taylor said.

"We definitely feel good about the season," Taylor said. "We don't graduate anyone in our top six. We're pretty excited about the future."

The team needs to continue its development during the track season and have good performances in the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and the steeplechase, Taylor said.

On the women's side, the team has confidence for next season, as it won the A-10 Championship two weeks ago.

"For the first time, we have two front-runner women that are running so well," coach Lori Taylor said. The team is much deeper now with the additions of freshmen such as Kate Spratford, which will lower its overall time, she said.

But now the focus is on Llano as he heads to Terre Haute to realize a dream he has had since high school, he said. He will face between 250 and 300 runners.

"I'm just going to go out there and race my hardest," Llano said. "I just want to go out there and have fun. It's my first time, hopefully the first of many."

Contact reporter Stephen Utz at stephen.utz@richmond.edu