Tweet #theGAC  MONTICELLO, Ark. – The East Central men’s cross country team placed its five scoring runners inside the top eight en route to earning their fourth Great American Conference Men’s Cross Country Championship title, on Saturday at the campus of Arkansas at Monticello.
 
The Tigers’, ranked fifth in the most recent USTFCCCA Central Region rankings, took home the top two individual places as Will Baldwin and Juan-Joel Pacheco Orozco paced ECU. Baldwin became the third Tiger to earn the individual title, joining Ezekiel Kissorio, who won at the inaugural event in 2011 and Pacheco Orozco, who claimed the title last year. Bruce Bragg, Cole Montgomery and Adrian Guevara also registered top-10 finishes.
 
Harding finished in second for the fourth time since 2011. Lucas Goodspeed, eighth at the 2014 GAC Championships, led the Bisons with a third-place finish and a time of 25:01.98. Russell Chase followed Goodspeed in fourth, 15 seconds behind. Larry Lopez also scored a top-10 finish as he placed ninth.
 
Southern Arkansas finished third, led by Doug Palmer’s 10th-place finish.  Southern Nazarene, headlined by Grayson Haws’ fifth-place showing, took fourth place for the second-straight year. Northwestern Oklahoma State, competing as a scoring team for the first time, took fifth.  Sterlin Broomfield led the Rangers as he finished in 38th. The host Weevils finished in sixth.
 
Oklahoma Baptist’s runners competed as unattached individuals. Ayoub Akil and Blaine Whitson turned in the top times for the Bison as Akil finished in 13th and Whitson took 14th.