By: Aaliyah Shelton
Staff Writer
The nationally second-ranked Wingate men’s cross country team is looking to cap off its best-ever season with a national title Nov. 18 at the NCAA National Championships in Joplin, Mo., after thoroughly dominating the competition in conference and regional meets over the last two weeks.
Wingate won its third consecutive South Atlantic Conference title at the Southside Park in Newton, N.C., on Oct. 21. The Bulldogs had six of the top eight and eight of the top 19 finishers to collect 20 points.
Jakob Rettschlang completed the 8K course in a school-record time of 22:51.55.
For the third season in a row, Wingate head coach Pol Domenech was voted the SAC Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year by his peers.
“We are incredibly proud of this group of men,” said Domenech. “They ran with confidence and composure, and executed the race plan to perfection. From first to 10th man, everyone was focused on their jobs and produced an amazing team result. The cherry on top was Jakob taking the overall win, after a long career at Wingate.”
“It is great to see his versatility from the 800m to the 8K cross. Today is just the beginning of a very exciting four weeks. The atmosphere on course was amazing with all 60 [of Wingate’s] cross country student-athletes cheering each other.”
Wingate had nine runners make All-SAC teams, including five first-team members.
For the third straight year, nine Bulldogs made the All-SAC teams. Rettschlag, Luis Hernandez-Perez, Luca Poppe, Will Aitken and Tom Thierry were first-team picks.
“It was a great meet, being able to pull the win not just for myself, but for my team was worth everything,” Rettschlang said. “We have a few weeks to get down to some hard training before the big dance—regionals and nationals.” The Bulldogs went on to defend their regional title Nov. 4 at the University of North Georgia in Oakwood, Ga., where they won their third straight NCAA Southeast Region championship.
Wingate runners finished in the top seven spots of the meet, with junior Titouan Le Grix taking home the individual crown on the 10K course with yet another school-record time of 28:45.0. He finished just ahead of freshman Hamza Chahid and senior Soheil Boufrizi, who were second and third, respectively.
“I’m so grateful to have been able to check all the boxes of today’s to-do list,” Le Grix said. “We couldn’t wish for more, finishing one through seven with my teammates was a huge last motivational boost before the national championship meet. The cherry on top was taking the individual victory. This shows how the program of my Coach Pol works very well… It’s just about time and consistency.”
Wingate’s perfect score of 15 was well ahead of second-place Augusta (75)
and third-place Catawba (95). “Today was a great day for our men’s program,” Domenech said. “We are excited to reclaim the regional championship… It is never easy to approach a championship with a target on your back. Being able to go one
through seven in the race shows how deep we are as a team and that we can still perform under high expectations.”
“Today was all about securing the team win, but it was nice to see Titouan take the individual title—a much- deserved result after years of hard work. We had several program firsts, but a perfect score and having all the racers finish in the top seven was the cherry on top.”
The Bulldog men now move on to the Division 2 National Championships Nov. 18 at Missouri Southern State in Joplin, Mo., hoping to win their first NCAA title. Wingate finished a program-best second at the NCAAs in 2022 at University Place, Wash.
Wingate Triangle 