Hernandez Earns All-American Status; Williamson Gains Highest Finish Ever at Nationals
Sunday afternoon's United States Athletic Association Men's Cross Country National championship race proved to be an outstanding one for Williamson on several fronts. Freshman standout runner Bryan Hernandez finished eighth in the nation, a finish that gained him All American status. In doing so, he became just the second runner in Williamson history to achieve such status. In addition, Williamson as a team finished 6th in the nation, the school's highest finish ever at Nationals.
Hernandez had had a great season coming into the race, winning the 2024 NJCAA Region 19 Men's championship two weeks ago. Earlier in the season he finished second at the Eastern States Athletic Conference Men's championship race. He also was the top junior college runner at the season opening Philly Metro race at the historic Belmont plateau.
At Sunday's national championship race, on a course that proved to be rather hilly, Hernandez was going up against the best of the best in the nation. If he was intimidated, he failed to show it, as finished the race in 29:12-just a were eight seconds behind the sixth-place runner. Eli Lemire from NHTI won the race in an astounding 27:23.
By finishing in the Top 10, Hernandez gained second team All-American status, becoming jus the second runner in Williamson history to achieve such. The first was Patrick James 1W9 at the 2018 national championship race in Virginia.
"Bryan has all kinds of talent," shared an ecstatic Williamson head coach Steve Hixson. "No one outworks him.
"It took him a bit to adjust from running a 5K high school race to an 8K collegiate race, but I knew once he did, there was no stopping him. He proved just that today.
"The hills were a bit of his undoing, but I'll tell you this; Now that he knows what he Is up against next year, he is not coming back to finish in the Top 10, he is coming back to win the whole thing!"
Not to be lost in the tremendous achievement by Hernandez, was the outstanding finish by the team overall. Williamson finished sixth in the team standings, the highest finish as a team at Nationals in school history.
"We had been nicked up with injuries all year long but we were getting healthy at the right time and our guys came to run."
After Hernandez's All-American finish, Amir Price was 49th overall, while Antonio Silva was 54th . Henry Rhein was next at 60th and Rahnier Townsend ended up in 80th place.
"It was a tough course and yet our guys were not fazed by it. We needed to run our best race of the year and our guys did just that. I could not be prouder of them. We can't wait for next year," closed an exuberant Hixson.
