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ALMA MATER
In the Mississippi Valley,
In the Crescent Bend
Stands our loved and noble Xavier,
Far her praises send.
Refrain:
Wave her colors bear them onward
Gold and white so true
Hail to thee, all hail, dear Xavier
Hail, all hail, X.U.!
Xavier, ever be our guide
And lead us on the way,
Through life's journey, onward, upward
To the eternal day. (Refrain)
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2011 Xavier University of Louisiana Men's Cross Country Preview
Pieri, Walston battle one more time for GCAC supremacy
See also:
Schedule
Roster
Quick Facts
Men's Cross Country Home Page
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It's great to rely on a defending individual league
champion when starting a cross country season. But at Xavier University of
Louisiana, the situation is twice as nice for the 2011 men's team.
Not only does junior Matt Pieri, the 2010 Gulf Coast
Athletic Conference champion, return for the Gold Rush, but so does the 2009
champion, senior Ray Walston.
"It makes my life a little easier," said seventh-year
coach Joseph Moses. "Matt and Ray have done a lot for our program
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About the Gold Rush
• Head Coach: Joseph Moses (LSU 1994), seventh season; 143-229 at Xavier
• 2010 Overall Record: 18-22
• 2010 GCAC Finish: 1st place out of 3 schools
• Lettermen: 4 returning, 3 lost
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and run a lot
of good races. Nothing's guaranteed when you compete, but if those two guys are
healthy on race day, I'm counting on them for another 1-2 finish at conference
and to lead us to nationals again. It will be interesting to see how their race
unfolds this season."
Walston never has finished lower than second at the GCAC
Championships. He was the runner-up as a freshman in 2008, then won the following
year by nearly six seconds as the Gold Rush swept the top four spots —
Pieri was fourth, 45 seconds behind Walston — and scored the fewest points by
a GCAC men's team champion since 1998. But last year Pieri pulled a surprise in the
conference meet, beating Walston by 16 seconds. And thanks to a 1-2-3 Xavier finish,
the Gold Rush lowered their winning team total by six points from the previous season.
If Pieri wins the GCAC this year, he'll be the league's
first repeat men's champion since Spring Hill's Patrick Aucoin (2007-08) and the
third in 20 seasons. If Walston reclaims the title, he'll be the GCAC's third
multiple champion during that time. And if either wins, Xavier will be the first
GCAC school to win three straight men's individual titles since Mobile in 1996-98.
Two more All-GCAC runners, Javon Mead and Charles Shaw,
also return for their sophomore seasons. Mead was third in the conference a year ago
and produced two other top-10 finishes. Shaw, a 36-year-old ex-Marine, was seventh
in the conference.
There are four freshmen — Texans Kwame Jackson and
Jamaal Williams and New Orleanians Emmanuel Detiege and Lawrence Stansberry —
making it the largest freshman class in 10 years on an XU men's cross country team.
Jackson, whose younger sister Zahri is a freshman on the XU women's team, is the
most heralded of the four. He was a district individual champion in 2009, competed in
three state meets and has a 5,000-meter time of 16 minutes, 18 seconds —
33 seconds faster than the Gold Rush record. Williams was the No. 3 runner on a
district championship team last fall, and Stansberry was 12th in his district in 2009.
The XU men, like the women, also are aiming for a sixth
consecutive GCAC team championship, Both GCAC team champions will earn automatic bids
to the NAIA National Championships. Xavier claimed the men's and women's bids in 2008
and 2009, but the league did not qualify for an automatic or at-large berths last
year because of insufficient GCAC teams competing. But this year there are six GCAC
schools running — Dillard, SUNO, Tougaloo, Fisk and Philander
Smith are the others.
"We're looking forward to defending our titles and the
opportunity to go to nationals again," Moses said.
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