Ryan Vanhoy Named SEC Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year

Ole Miss Men’s and Women’s Cross Country compete in the 2018 SEC Championships in Auburn, Ala. on October 26, 2018.
Photo by Petre Thomas/Ole Miss Athletics

After a historic win at the SEC Cross Country Championships, coach Ryan Vanhoy (SEC Men’s Coach of the Year) and Cade Bethmann (SEC Men’s Freshman of the Year) were both honored in the conference’s yearly awards released on Wednesday.

This marks the first time in school history that Ole Miss has won an SEC men’s or women’s cross country Coach of the Year award. Vanhoy, who is in his sixth season at Ole Miss, helped lead the Rebel men to the first SEC title in Ole Miss track or cross country history – snapping an eight-year streak by Arkansas to become the first school not named Arkansas or Alabama to win the men’s title since Tennessee did so in 1990.

Ole Miss took the men’s title on a 36-44 win over the Razorbacks, a strong team effort that saw the five Rebel scorers all finish within 14 seconds of each other in the top-11 spots.

Included in that group was Bethmann, who finished as the top freshman in the conference in sixth place at a career-best 8K time of 23:05.0. He is the third Rebel to ever win the SEC Freshman of the Year award, following in the steps of All-Americans Barnabas Kirui (2006) and Sean Tobin (2014). Bethmann was also an NCAA East Region qualifier on the track last spring in the 1500-meter.

In addition to the two awards today, Ole Miss also landed nine members to either the All-SEC or All-Freshman teams. Making First-Team All-SEC were sophomore Waleed Suliman, freshman Cade Bethmann and freshman Mario Garcia Romo, making Second-Team were Farah Abdulkarim, Mark Robertson and Clio Ozanne-Jaques, and earning All-Freshman were Bethmann, Garcia Romo and Lisa Vogelgesang.

Next up for the Rebels is a trip to Florida State for the NCAA South Regional, which will begin at 7:30 AM CT on Friday morning (Nov. 9).

SEC Men’s Coach of the Year

Ryan Vanhoy

SEC Men’s Freshman of the Year

Cade Bethmann

Men’s First-Team All-SEC:

Waleed Suliman

Cade Bethmann

Mario Garcia Romo

Men’s Second-Team All-SEC:

Farah Abdulkarim

Mark Robertson

Men’s SEC All-Freshman:

Cade Bethmann

Mario Garcia Romo

Women’s Second-Team All-SEC:

Clio Ozanne-Jaques

Women’s SEC All-Freshman:

Lisa Vogelgesang

For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.

Courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics