Mathenge Named SLC Newcomer of the Year
11/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
FRISCO, Texas - Stephen F. Austin men's cross country runner Charles Mathenge was named the 2014 Southland Conference Male Newcomer of the Year, announced by the league office in conjunction with the all-conference teams Thursday afternoon.
The honor for Mathenge comes on the heels of a breakout performance last Monday at the 2014 SLC Cross Country Championships. The sophomore shattered the SFA school record in the 8,000-meter race, crossing the finish line in 23:42 to claim runner-up in the individual men's competition. He is the only SFA runner ever to run under 24 minutes in an 8k race, averaging 4:46 per mile, en route to First Team All-SLC recognition.
The second place showing by Mathenge is the best finish by an SFA men's runner at the SLC Championships since now head coach Cody Clark won the individual title in 2005.
"For Charles to come into a new situation and really just do things perfectly, putting in a lot of hard work and a lot of mileage while being in a new environment, is very impressive," Clark said. "For him to do that and progressively get better each race and obviously turn in an awesome performance at the conference meet just gives him a lot of confidence that he's in the right place and that he chose the right school.
"It also gives him that big confidence boost going into the regional meet knowing that he'll have a legitimate shot to make it out as an individual qualifier if the team doesn't make it out. For him, this award is just a validation that he's here for the right reasons, training hard and that things are coming together."
Mathenge, a native of Ol Kalou, Kenya, transferred to SFA from Oklahoma State and is in his first season with the Lumberjacks. He has paced the men's team in all three of his races this year, including Monday's championship event. Mathenge also ran to a 16th-place finish out of 430 stundent-athletes at the Chile Pepper Festival on Oct. 4 and placed eighth out of 197 in the Alabama Crimson Classic on Oct. 17.
The SFA cross country teams swept second at the SLC Championships this year and Mathenge highlighted a list of five All-SLC performers between both sides. Sophomore Colby Mehmen (24:21) took eighth for the men to earn second team accolades, while redshirt freshman Courtney High (21:01), sophomore Samantha Ottman (21:04) and true freshman Brittany Innis (21:04) finished 6-7-8, respectively, in the women's 6,000-meter race to garner second team honors.
"I think having the number of athletes make the all-conference teams that we did is just a testament to the hard work the whole group has put in," said Clark. "We know Lamar ran a very good race but we ran a very good race as well. It just wasn't good enough on the day. To have five all-conference athletes is big for us - I think it's one of the more successful years we've ever had.
"We had to have guys and girls step up for us on Monday and they did. I think five is a good number although we'd obviously like more. Cody Brown and Shelby Pesek both could have easily been in the top 10 and we could have been talking about seven in the first two teams, but overall I'm very happy with how things played out."
The top-10 finishers in each race earned All-Southland Conference honors, with the first five being placed on the first team and the 6-10 runners landing on the second team.
Brown and Pesek were joined by sophomore Josh Torres and redshirt freshman Jeffrey Weisheit on the conference honorable mention list after finishing their respective races in the 11-15 range.
Lamar took seven of the eight individual conference awards between both the women's and men's teams, including male and female athlete of the year. Mathenge was the only non-Lamar athlete to be honored.
The SFA cross country teams are now preparing for the NCAA South Central Regional meet set for next Friday, Nov. 14 in Fayetteville, Ark., where both the men's and women's teams will look to punch tickets to the NCAA National Championships.
For the full list of Southland Conference cross country awards click here.
-SFA- 
