Men's cross country sending runner to nationals for first time in three decades

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 at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship with a time of 30 minutes, 28.5 seconds in the 10-kilometer race held at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, N.C., on Saturday. He was the top finisher among Atlantic-10 runners, beating A-10 champion junior Adu Dentamo from Charlotte, who finished 14th in 31:01.0.

Llano, the A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year, advances to the national championship meet next weekend in Terre Haute, Ind., at Indiana State University. The last Richmond runner -- male or female -- to go to nationals was Josephine White in 1981. The last males were Hillary Tuwei and Sosthenes Bitok in 1979 under storied track coach Fred Hardy.

"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 has made better running decisions and gained more experience during the past year, which has helped him become 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 of the season. "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. Junior Andrew Benford was 29th in 31:37.1, freshman Levi Grandt was 53rd (32:14.8), sophomore Tim Quinn was 60th (32:23.5), junior Jon Wilson was 61st (32:28,4), freshman Tim Smith was 105th (33:20.5), and senior Sean Welsh was 127th (33:48.8).

For the women, sophomore Nicol Traynor finished 14th in 21:29.1, and freshman Katie Spratford's time was 21:53.4 for 33rd. The women's team finished eighth overall.

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

Check in Thursday's Collegian for an expanded article.

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