The William and Mary men's cross country team swept the year-end conference awards in the Colonial Athletic Association, the league announced on Wednesday.  It is the 10th time in the past 20 years that the College has won Athlete, Rookie, and Coach of the Year in the same season, and the third in the past four years.  Along with the Tribe women's team sweeping its three awards as well, it is just the second time (W&M, 2003) that one team has won all six cross country honors.

Redshirt-senior Alex McGrath (Marlborough, N.H.) was named the conference Athlete of the Year, after winning the CAA title with a course-record performance.  The Tribe's top runner all year long, McGrath's winning time of 24:04.1 broke the Eastern State record of 24:12 set by 1996 Olympian Brian Hyde '96 at the 1993 CAA Championships.  McGrath was also the individual champion at the W&M Invitational, and was honored as the CAA Runner of the Week twice during the regular season.  He brought his cross country career to a close by leading W&M at the Southeast Regional, finishing 18th overall for his second all-region award.

Freshman Ryan Gousse (Apopka, Fla.) was the league's choice as Rookie of the Year, after becoming the Tribe's first true freshman to run at the Southeast Regionals since 2004.  He was the top freshman finisher at the CAA Championships in 15th place, and ran as part of the varsity squad at each of the last four races of the year.  He was ninth for the Tribe at Paul Short and sixth at Pre-Nationals, finishing sixth on the team again at the conference and regional meets.  Gousse is the sixth Green and Gold harrier in a row to be picked as the CAA's top newcomer, and 13th overall in 20 years.

Tribe head coach Stephen Walsh was picked by his peers as the Coach of the Year for the third year in a row, after leading the team to its 13th-consecutive CAA title.  Walsh's charges were ranked as high as 23rd in the nation during the regular season, and won CAA Runner of the Week honors after every meet.  W&M's conference championship streak is the fourth-longest active streak in the country, and is tied with the 1947-59 Kansas program as the seventh-longest in collegiate history.  Walsh's three-straight awards continue a streak of 14-straight years in which the Coach of the Year winner has come from the College.