Saturday, November 5, 2005

Livingstone’s Darius Shade wins NCAA Southeast Region Championship

Wingate, NC – Today sophomore runner Darius Shade led the Blue Bears Cross-Country team at the NCAA DII Southeast Region Championships hosted by Wingate University. Shade, the 2005 CIAA XC Champion, finished the 10K race with a personal best 32:14. Last season, Darius Shade finished as CIAA and SE Region Runner-up. Today, with a time six seconds better than last year, he improved as the region’s champion. He will now advance to the NCAA Nationals; hosted by California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, CA on November 19.

Darius Shade is the first student-athlete from Livingstone to ever win a CIAA XC Individual and a Southeast Region Championships.

“I am very proud of Darius for his accomplishments. Thus far, he has represented Livingstone and the track and field program very well. As a sophomore, He has a lot of potential. With his work ethics and dedication, Darius’ track & field career has just begun. The sky is the limit when he reaches full potential,” comments Head Coach Adrian Ferguson

Overall, the Blue Bears team finished 14^th. Freshmen Joshua Smith finished 83^rd in 40:07 and Lavernon Spivey finished 91^st in 40:43. Junior Marshon Winters was 98^th with a time of 41:58 and Freshman Saif Davis wrapped the race up with the 109^th position. Livingstone finished with a total of 352 points.

Mars Hill won the 10K race with 48 points. The champions will join Darius Shade and the runner-up team St. Andrews (82 points) in California for the nationals.