Huntsville, Ala. - The Francis Marion University men's and women's cross country teams placed 18th and 21st respectively at the NCAA Division II South Regional Championships, Saturday morning (Nov. 3).

Junior Steven Holmes led the Patriot men with an 80th-place finish.  He completed the 10,000-meter course in a time of 35:50.8.  Freshman Jerry Roth placed 81st (35:52.0), followed by freshman Ben Miller in 110th (37:18.3), junior Dan Brann in 115th (37:38.3), senior Ariel Ortiz in 127th (39:23.4), junior TJ Simmons in 130th (45:49.4), and junior Chris Rice in 131st (45:51.6).

Florida Southern College tallied 61 points to claim the men's team title in the 21-team field.  Host school University of Alabama-Huntsville and the University of Tampa each recorded 103 points, bumping off region power Harding University, which finished fourth with 106 points.  The top three squads qualified for the national championship meet.
 
Emmanuel Kirwa of Benedict College was the overall men's winner with a time of 31:53.9.

Junior Kelly May paced the FMU women with a 41st-place finish as she toured the 6,000-meter course in 24:02.9.  Freshman Emma Dooley was 133rd (27:07.0) followed by sophomore Amanda Doyle (27:25.6), sophomore Kim Richardson in 137th (27:28.6), and sophomore Holly Todd in 147th (28:38.0).

In the women's race, Tampa had all five of its runners finish in in the top 15 en route to the team championship with 40 points. Harding and UAH finished the race with 55 and 79 points respectively to join Tampa in qualifying for the nationals in Joplin, Mo. 

Janee Jones of Harding was the South Region women's champion, finishing first with a time of 21:17.4.