Business student first Chanticleer to earn All-American honors
Coastal Carolina freshman Nadeel Wildschutt placed 28th at the 2017 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship and became the first Chanticleer to earn All-American honors in the sport.
Wildschutt, who won the Sun Belt championship and placed fourth at the NCAA Southeast Regional this fall, turned in a time of 29:52.0 at the 10K course to finish 28th among the field of 254 competitors. The winning time was 29:00.1 by Syracuse's Justyn Knight.
"Nadeel is our program's first All-American, so this is historic for Coastal Carolina men's cross country," said the director of track and field Sandy Fowler. "Kudos to Zola Pieterse (CCU cross country head coach) for her coaching and mentoring of Nadeel. He bought into her leadership and believed in the process. This will be the first of many more positive results for this program."
Not only does Wildschutt become Coastal's first men's cross country All-American, he was just the second Chanticleer to participate NCAA Championship as CCU Hall of Famer Terah Kipchiris ran at nationals in both 2002 and 2003.
WIldschuut started strong and was in eighth at the first checkpoint as he ran the first two kilometers in 5:40.5. He moved up to seventh at the next checkpoint posting a time a time of 11:40 through 4K. He fell to 29th after eight kilometers but crossed the line with a time of 29:52.0 to out-kick Campbell's Amon Kemboi (29:52.1) down the stretch to finish 28th.
Wildschutt, who ran an average mile time of 4:48.6 for the race, was the second-highest placing freshman at the national championship, trailing only BYU's Casey Clinger (29:46.4).
Article courtesy of CCU Athletics.