Notre Dame’s Sparks, NC State’s Henes voted league Coaches of the Year
GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Virginia Tech junior Peter Seufer and Louisville junior Dorcas Wasike have been selected as the 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Runners of the Year.
Both Seufer and Wasike were individual ACC champions, and each placed among the top 20 of the NCAA Division I Championships held Nov. 17 at Madison, Wisconsin.
In addition, Notre Dame first-year head coach Matt Sparks was voted the ACC Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year, while NC State’s Laurie Henes was tabbed as the ACC Women’s Coach of the Year for the third year in a row and the fourth time overall.
The ACC season honors were determined by a vote of the league’s cross country head coaches.
Seufer, who hails from Lynchburg, Virginia, ran the 10K course at the NCAA Championship in a time of 29 minutes, 36.88 seconds to place 16th and earn All-America status. It marked the second-highest finish ever for a Virginia Tech men's runner at the NCAA Championships. Seufer took the gold medal at the ACC Championships with an 8k time of 23:30.9 prior to placing second at the NCAA Southeast Regionals. He also placed first in the Paul Short 8K Run during the regular season
Wasike, a junior from Kitale, Kenya, earned All-America honors for the second consecutive season with her 14th-place 6K time of 20:08.8 at the NCAA finals. That solid showing came eight days after Wasike won the individual title at the Southeast Regional Championships in 19:42.1. In addition to the ACC Championship, in which she registered a gold medal time of 20:08.1, she also captured individual crowns at the Tennessee Duals and the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic. Wasike became the first Louisville female athlete to claim an ACC cross country championship and to be named a USTFCCCA Regional Athlete of the Year.
Sparks took the reins at Notre Dame last July after spending the previous four seasons as the program’s associate head coach. The Fighting Irish men dethroned five-time defending champion Syracuse at the ACC Championships held Oct. 26 in Boston, placing three runners among the top 10 and seeing four runners earn All-ACC honors. Notre Dame went on to place 14th at the NCAA Championships. After being unranked to open the season, the Fighting Irish rose as high as No. 10 in the USTFCCCA national rankings.
“This award is a reflection on the young men that come to compete every day for the University of Notre Dame,” Sparks said. “They have bought into a system and believe in the vision. The leadership for that vision has been provided by (assistant coach) Sean Carlson, who guides the men. This recognition is an honor for all of those associated with our program.”
Henes, in her 13th year as the Wolfpack women’s cross country head coach, led NC State to its third consecutive ACC championship and 24th overall. Henes’ Wolfpack placed 13th at this year’s NCAA Championship, marking the program’s fourth consecutive top-15 finish. Henes, a former NC State All-American who ran on four ACC championship teams and was the conference’s gold medalist in 1991, was also recognized as the USTFCCCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year for the third consecutive season and the fourth time overall.
“It's an honor to be named Coach of the Year among an incredible group of head coaches in this conference,” Henes said. “I'm proud of this team's determination and what they were able to achieve this season. I feel incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such a great group of student-athletes, coaches and support staff at NC State who have helped make all of our accomplishments possible.”
