Tennessee Takes Fifth at NCAA South Regionals

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Tennessee's cross country squad closed out its season by finishing a respectable fifth place with 139 points at the NCAA South Regionals in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday afternoon. Vols Marcus Tanner and Paul Hallman brought home All-Region honors by finishing the 10K race at Harry Pritchett Golf Course in the top 25. Additionally, Tanner has a chance to make the NCAA Championships field as an individual because of his strong effort at the South Regionals.

Host Alabama took the team title with 47 points. South Florida posted 70 points to earn runner-up status. The top two teams advance to the NCAA Championships. Alabama's David Kimani, the Southeastern Conference champion, won the individual title by running the course in 30:25.15.

"We made an improvement since our last race," head coach George Watts said. "Probably the best we could have finished was fourth. Most of our guys ran as well as they could run under the circumstances. Marcus Tanner ran a great race. He has a shot at qualifying for nationals, but we won't know until Monday. Paul Hallman also ran an excellent race. He was the top freshman finisher in the meet."

Tanner wrapped up All-Region honors by leading the Vols in 10th place. Tanner, a native of Chiefland, Fla., broke the tape in 31:39.74 to continue his strong late-season improvement after an injury held him from early competitions. Hallman's 25th-place, All-Region time of 32:26.06 proved to be the fastest by any freshman in the competition.

Rob Cloutier contributed a 32nd-place, 32:35.24 effort to the Vol cause. Keith Kimmons finished 45th in 33:01.37. Eric Bell rounded out Vol scorers in 49th in 33:04.57. Clay Wiggins crossed 72nd by running a 33:49.89. Vince Dressel broke the tape in 33:54.89 to stand 77th. The spread between Tennessee's top five finishers was 1:24.83, a tighter and better spread than the Vols ran at the SEC Championships even though it was a shorter race (8K).

TEAM FINISHES
1.	Alabama	47
2.	South Florida	70
3.	Florida	78
4.	Belmont	104
5.	Tennessee	139
6.	Auburn	197
7.	UT-Chattanooga	209
8.	Georgia Tech	213
9.	Florida State	253
10.	Georgia State	269
11.	Bethune-Cookman	300
12.	Samford	305
13.	Miami	317
14.	Georgia	339
15.	ETSU	382
16.	Central Florida	466
17.	Tennessee Tech	470
18.	Mercer	484
19.	Vanderbilt	499

TENNESSEE INDIVIDUAL FINISHES
1.	David Kimani, Ala.	30:25.52
10.	Marcus Tanner, Tenn.	31:39.74
25.	Paul Hallman, Tenn.	32:26.06
32.	Rob Cloutier, Tenn.	32:35.24
45.	Keith Kimmons, Tenn.	33:01.37
49.	Eric Bell, Tenn.	33:04.57
72.	Clay Wiggins, Tenn.	33:49.89
77.	Vince Dressel, Tenn.	33:54.89
129.	John Thayer, Mercer	37:21.30

University of Tennessee Athletics

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