Final Notes on the 2012 Cross Country Season

Clemson Produces Three All-Region Runners The NCAA Southeast Regionals were again fruitful to the Clemson cross country program.  The Tigers produced three all-region selections – Erin Barker and Kate Borowicz from the women’s team, as well as Aaron Ramirez from the men’s program.  It was the fifth straight season that the Clemson women’s program produced at least one all-region selection.  That is the longest such streak for the program since the 1983-87 era under Clemson Hall of Fame coach Wayne Coffman.  Ramirez’s all-region performance gave the men’s program back-to-back selections, as Ty McCormack nabbed the honor in 2011. Ramirez Capped Brilliant 2012 Season at Regionals Aaron Ramirez, a red-shirt sophomore from the Upstate of South Carolina, turned in arguably one of the most improved seasons in Clemson cross country history.  Just one year after a 70th-place finish at the NCAA Southeast Regionals, he was 21st in the Nov. 9 meet in Charlotte, NC to claim his first all-region accolade.  Ramirez produced an outstanding 10K time of 30:40.81, nearly 78 seconds better than his time from Louisville’s Sawyer Park at the same meet one year before.  Ramirez also was Clemson’s top performer at the ACC Championships, running to a 28th-place finish over the 8,000-meter distance. Ramirez claimed a pair of top-five individual finishes in 2012.  First, he began his season with a victory in the Clemson Invitational held on the school’s athletic grounds.  He then earned a fourth-place spot at the Charlotte Invitational on Sept. 28 while leading the Tiger men to a sixth-place effort out of 35 teams. Barker Earns All-Region Nod With Second Different School It’s not an every year occurrence to have a student-athlete earn all-region honors with two different Division I institutions.  But that is exactly what happened in 2012 when Erin Barker claimed all-region status in her first year as a member of Clemson’s program.  She finished 24th at the Southeast Regionals in Charlotte.  This followed a 21st-place effort from 2011 at Louisville’s Sawyer Park when she was a senior at nearby Furman University.  Barker graduated from Furman last May before enrolling at Clemson for her final year of eligibility. Borowicz Among Most Improved for Tiger Women’s Team Clemson looked for consistency out of Kate Borowicz in 2012 after the departure of longtime standouts Alyssa Kulik and Kim Ruck.  The Tigers received just that in her red-shirt junior season.  The Greenville, SC native who first attended Georgia Tech was arguably the most improved runner on the Clemson women’s roster in 2012.  Her turnaround culminated with her first all-region performance, a 21st-place finish at the Southeast Regionals in Charlotte, NC on Nov. 9. Borowicz ran a personal best 21:09.87 on the 6,000-meter course in Charlotte to lead Clemson’s women to a seventh-place team finish – a third straight top-10 for the program.  Borowicz also was 36th at the ACC Championships, the No. 3 runner on the Tiger team.  Borowicz was in Clemson’s top three in every meet of the 2012 season, with a best of second place at the Clemson Invitational. McCormack Red-Shirted 2011 Season Due to Study Abroad Program The Clemson men’s team took a major hit at the outset of the 2011 season when its best runner, Ty McCormack, enrolled in a study abroad program in China.  The program was to satisfy a prerequisite in his major, language & international trade.  The native of Gainesville, GA had been All-ACC and all-region in 2011 as a sophomore before red-shirting the 2012 season.  He returned after the fall semester to compete for Lawrence Johnson’s track & field team in 2012-13.  McCormack has two years of eligibility remaining in cross country.