[Men's Cross Country] Ray's Performance Helps Lead Williamson to Third Place Finish at 2022 ...

As he has done all year, freshman cross country runner Ashton Ray (FR/Glenolden) led the way for Williamson, using his best race of the year to help propel Williamson to a third-place finish at the 2022 National Junior College Athletic Association's 2022 Region XIX championships.  The event was hosted by Delaware Tech.

Ray managed to finish 11thoverall in the Men's race.  As equally impressive as the race run by Ray were the races run by Shamar Smith (JR/Philadelphia, PA) and Jack Gomer.  Both of them ran their best race of the year to finish 15th and 17th respectively.   Pious Rodgers, Marquis Merricks and Davon MacFarland rounded out the finishers for Williamson. 

Brookdale College won the race, with Rowan College of South Jersey-Gloucester finishing in second.  Williamson then took the third spot.  Williamson was coming off a second place finish at last week's 2022 EPAC championships.

"Most of our guys had no formal training or race experience, so it was a learning experience for them," shared 17th year head coach Steve Hixson 7W3. "It was neat to see that as they learned about running and then put the time and hard work in, they started to see results. 

"Running is an incredibly tough sport but each guy hung in there and did a really good job of finishing strong.  I'm very proud of them," closed Hixson.

With the entire team returning for next year, the future looks really bright for the future of the Williamson cross country program.