IUPUI Athletics

IUPUI MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY TEAM RECOGNIZES 2009 AWARD WINNERS

Junior Joe Hoffman sweeps Most Valuable and Most Improved awards

11/22/2009 8:45:00 PM

By: Taylor Thomas, IUPUI Sports Information

INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI men’s cross country team announced their postseason awards for the recently completed 2009 season. The awards were presented by Head Coach Chuck Koeppen at the team’s end-of-year banquet, held on Sunday evening inside the Campus Center.

Junior Joe Hoffman earned the Most Valuable Runner Award and Most Improved Award for a second time as a Jaguar. Senior Evan Fruits was honored with the Leadership and Coach’s Awards and rookie #J.D. Smith# was picked IUPUI's Top Newcomer.

Hoffman was IUPUI’s strongest runner throughout the season, building a resume that included a First Team All-Summit League award. He led the Jaguars and finished seventh overall at The Summit League Championship Meet on Oct. 31. He led IUPUI to the finish line three times during the 2009 season and ran a personal best 33:10.39 10K in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on November 14. His time was the seventh-fastest in IUPUI's program history at that distance. He recorded a season-best 8K time at the Notre Dame 5K Invitational, finishing at 25:36.

Fruits, Koeppen's lone senior on the squad, became a back-to-back winner of the Leadership Award after running among IUPUI's top five in all seven meets this season. The team's vocal leader ran a season best 8K at the Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 2 when he finished with a time of 25:51. The Whiteland-native placed his highest overall when he took sixth out of 58 runners at the IPFW Invitational, helping the Jags to the meet title. His season best 10K time came at the season-ending NCAA Great Lakes Regional when he recorded a time of 34:24.99.

Smith had a strong initial collegiate campaign, emerging as a top three runner over the final four meets of the season. The Carmel-product ran a season-best 26:01 8K at the Notre Dame Invite and was IUPUI's No. 2 runner at both the ISU Pre-Nationals Meet and Summit League Championship Meet.

Koeppen's team placed fourth in The Summit this past season and graduates just one senior heading into 2010.

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