Henry Pick Earns National Athlete of the Week Honors from USTFCCCA

CLAREMONT, Calif. - For his role in helping the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's cross country team to a SCIAC title, first-year Henry Pick earned the NCAA National Division III Athlete of the Week honor from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, the organization announced today.

Pick hadn't been one of the top five scorers for CMS all year, although he came very close by coming in sixth on the team on two different occasions, including his collegiate debut at the Biola Invitational. In the most recent race the Stags competed in, the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego on Oct. 12, Pick was the ninth Stag to cross the finish line. 

At the SCIAC Championships, though, Pick chose an opportune time to make his debut in the CMS top five, and it made the difference in determining the league champion. Pick finished 10th overall (25:22.25) as the fifth CMS runner to cross, one spot ahead of the fifth Sagehen to cross just 4.75 seconds later in 11th place. In addition to being the difference between first-team All-SCIAC (given to the top 10 finishers) and second-team All-SCIAC honors (given to the 11th-20th place finishers) individually, the one spot difference pulled CMS into a tie with Pomona-Pitzer with 31 points, while also giving the Stags a 3-2 advantage in the tiebreaker as the decisive head-to-head point.  

The win enabled CMS to capture its first league title since the 2016 team capped off a stretch of five in a row. The Stags had finished third in the league race in each of the last two seasons, although they bounced back to tie Pomona-Pitzer at the NCAA West Regionals. 

This year's NCAA West Regionals will be back at Claremont on Nov. 16, when Pick and the Stags will try to earn a team qualification to nationals for the 12th year in a row.