University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
NCAA Southeast Regional
Alcorta & Ilse Earn All-Region Honors
November 10, 2017 | Cross Country
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Junior Morgan Ilse finished 12th and senior Caroline Alcorta finished 17th at the NCAA Southeast Regional Friday at Panorama Farms to earn all-region honors. Alcorta earned the honor for the second time in her career (first since 2015) after finishing in 20:52.4, and Ilse earned the distinction for the first time after running 20:37.5. The Tar Heel women finished 13th of 37 teams overall and the men finished 16th of 32 teams.
The pair have competed alongside one another all season long - finishing within seconds of each other in every race the two have run together. Both were named All-ACC two weeks ago after finishing 11th (Ilse) and 12th (Alcorta) at the ACC Championships on Oct. 27.
"It's been so comforting because whenever I feel like I get really wound up, I know Mo is always there with a really great attitude," Alcorta said. "It kind of brings me back down to the level that I think we both need to be at. Even in the race, we would find each other and she would push, and I would come back up to her, and then I would push."
The gap between the duo and the rest of Carolina's top-five remains large - Erin Edmundson finished 74th, Mady Clahane finished 109th and Emma Astrike-Davis finished 134th - but Alcorta believes that from where this team has come to now, the program is trending in the right direction.
"Looking back from last year until now, we've just grown so much as a team," Alcorta said. "I'm just really excited for the future, because if this is the direction that we're heading then I think it's going to be something special."
On the men's side, Jeremy Brown crossed the line first for Carolina for the fourth-straight meet in 53rd. Close behind him was the senior, Logan Carroll, who finished 71st to wrap up his cross country career for the Tar Heels. Rounding out the scoring was Mark Myers in 99th, Matt Thornton in 100th and Mitch Resor in 113th.
It was not the finish to the season Carolina was looking for, but after five of the seven guys took falls in the first 800 meters, Carroll thought the team competed well in the face of adversity.
"I think we haven't really performed the way we've wanted to, but with that being said this is probably been one of the most fun seasons I've had," Carroll said. "A really good group of guys. Everyone's just working so hard. We just haven't had that breakthrough performance that we need. I couldn't be prouder of the way our guys have worked through the adversity. We could have very easily just kind of packed it in and shut it down, but people kept working really hard and it's going to pay off eventually."
Particularly for Carroll, it was not the way he wanted to close out his senior season, but he says he wouldn't trade his experience at Carolina for anything.
"Competitively, he's probably disappointed in his overall results, although there have been flashes of what we knew he was capable of from the beginning," head coach Mark VanAlstyne said of Carroll. "I'm just proud of him hanging in there and continuing to work so hard, and doing so well in the classroom and off the track in all the community service initiatives that we ask him to do. He's been a prototypical Tar Heel student-athlete for us and I've enjoyed working with him, and hopefully we have four or five more months in track that we can do some of these things we know he's capable of."
Next Up: The Tar Heels are hopeful they will receive a NCAA Championship at-large bid for Morgan Ilse once all of the regional meets have concluded. The indoor track and field season begins Jan. 13th with the Dick Taylor Carolina Cup in Chapel Hill at Eddie Smith Field House.
Carolina Women (6k) - 13th of 37 with 344 points
Morgan Ilse, 20:37.5, 12th
Caroline Alcorta, 20:52.4, 17th
Erin Edmundson, 22:13.1, 74th
Mady Clahane, 22:37.3, 109th
Emma Astrike-Davis, 22:56.3, 134th
Casey Greenwalt, 23:04.5, 148th
Lindsey Lanier, 23:24.4, 167th
Carolina Men (10k) - 16th of 32 with 425 points
Jeremy Brown, 30:39.2, 53rd
Logan Carroll, 31:00.6, 71st
Mark Myers, 31:38.9, 99th
Matt Thornton, 31:39.1, 100th
Mitch Resor, 31:54.8, 113th
Jake McEneaney, 33:08.7, 174th
Brodie Modini, 33:38.0, 192nd
Players Mentioned
