ELON, N.C. – When redshirt sophomore
Evan Taylor crossed the finish line of the men's CAA cross country championship – collapsing to the ground in exhaustion – he was originally unsure of what place he came in. Minutes later on Friday morning, Taylor discovered the preliminary results showed he finished 18th, meaning he was four spots shy of a coveted All-CAA honors selection.
As he lay on the ground recovering covered in sweat, grass and mud, Taylor anxiously awaited for the final 8K results to be tallied, hoping he managed to finish in the top-15. As the runners continued to cross the finish line, the order of finish for the racers was continually updated. Once the results were finalized and set in stone, Taylor quickly made a heel turn in emotions.
"To find out that I actually got 13th was pretty incredible," Taylor said. "I think it actually made it a little more special because I did go from a bit of a, 'Meh' to an, 'OK, that was actually really good."
At last season's conference championship meet, Taylor coincidentally finished in 18th place in the 8K. After falling short last year, he said a top-15 conference championship finish has been an ambition of his ever since. Taylor also said with the Phoenix hosting the meet, there was nowhere more rewarding for him to earn All-CAA honors than on his home course.
"It was a goal for me last year, just missed out [by] a little bit, and to be able to do it this year at home with my team behind me was incredible," Taylor said.
Head coach Mark Rinker was pleased with his sole All-CAA runner on the men's side. Because Taylor trusted the adjustments his coach made in his first year, Rinker said it was very rewarding to see the work pay off for the redshirt sophomore.
"Evan [Taylor] is a guy that's trusted me and believed in what we were trying to do and the changes we were trying to make to his training," Rinker said.
Rinker said that with the gradual improvement from Taylor over the season, it was exciting to watch his runner execute his goals that have been present since the beginning of the season. With two years of eligibility left, Rinker believes that his veteran captain in Taylor still has room for improvement and to compete at the highest level in the conference.
"He wanted to be in the top-15 to get All-CAA this year," Rinker said of Taylor. "He's really set the foundation for himself because he's only a redshirt sophomore, so he's still got time in front of him to improve that. I have full confidence that he'll never be outside the top five or six again at this meet."
The women saw three runners earn All-CAA honors, with newcomer graduate student Mikayla Jones leading the way for the Phoenix finishing in fifth place in the 6K.
Rinker said that before the race, Jones shared with him that it was her goal to be at the front leading the team. After earning a top-five finish in the conference, Rinker said he was very pleased to see how well she executed. Jones echoed Rinker's messaging.
"That's a huge accomplishment for me and I think that I just performed for the team and that was the whole goal for the race," Jones said.
Jones gave much of the credit to Rinker and praised him as one of the main reasons she went on to earn All-CAA honors.
"I bought into the training really early on," Jones said. "I had heard good things about coach Rinker, and I just put my faith in him and all my trust in him."
Though Friday morning marked her first time competing in a CAA championship, it also marked Jones' last time running in a home cross country meet at Elon. Despite her season-long stint with the Phoenix close to an end – she still has at least one guaranteed contest left at NCAA Southeast Regionals – Jones said from the moment she stepped on campus, she knew she made the right decision.
"The people on this team have just made this year and [the] whole experience so special to me," Jones said.
"It's a little different coming in not knowing anyone, but I feel like all the girls have made it such a smooth transition that I have them to lean on and they have me to lean on and everyone can always talk to each other about anything," Jones added.
Jones explained that although she only had one season in the maroon and gold, she made an impact that will last. Even with the departure of herself along with other veteran harriers at the end of the season, she said the young team is poised for continued success in the future.
"Even though I'm here for a year and once I'm gone, I won't be able to do much, but I know that they'll continue to improve the team culture, and they'll continue to do really well for the team, and I have full faith that we're going to continue to grow stronger every year," Jones said.
In addition to Jones, sophomores Hannah Weber and
Abby Beville both earned All-CAA honors, respectively finishing in 11th and 12th place.
With Weber and Beville's strong races propelling the women to a third place overall team finish, Rinker said he is enthusiastic about the team's prospects of competing at the highest level.
"We have a lot of really young, talented women on the team that are going to really show up over the next year," Rinker said. "I'm excited about where we'll go with that."
With the men finishing fifth overall as a team, just 17 points short of fourth place, Rinker explained that the strong outing – showing notable improvement from "a distant sixth place finish" last season at CAA championships – is encouraging for the future.
"Creating a culture with the men's team that we're going to be a team that competes at the top of the CAA, I think we really started to establish that foundation and it's something that we can build on," Rinker said.
Following the 8K, Taylor, who also is a team captain, led a group huddle for the men's squad. During the gathering, Taylor told his teammates how valuable each of them was, regardless of their performance or even if they ran at all.
"I was telling [them], whether you had an amazing race and you scored, whether you had a bad day and you didn't, whether you were injured and here cheering, everyone is an extremely huge part of this team," Taylor said. "I was just so proud of every single person that was not only racing but just that was here today wearing an Elon jersey."
The CAA championship was only Elon's first postseason outing of the season, though. With NCAA Southeast Regionals in Rock Hill, South Carolina just over two weeks away, the Phoenix still has at least one guaranteed contest left to run Nov. 15.
Rinker explained with his team competing at a high level on Friday, he is excited to see what his runners can accomplish throughout the rest of the postseason.
"We're going to try to run an even better race at the regional meet," Rinker said.
Although the meet is more than two weeks away, Jones said the team's plan for regionals is already clear to her.
"We're going to do the same exact thing we did today where we go out and everyone puts forth everything that they can, and when it hurts, we just continue to run for each other," Jones said.
'Rising Phoenix' is a student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on X (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Chase Strawser at cstrawser@elon.edu.
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