Butler Sweeps Top Horizon League Individual Honors

Dec. 3, 2004

Butler distance runners Olly Laws and Victoria Mitchell have been named the 2004 Horizon League Cross Country Male and Female Athletes of the Year by a vote of league cross country coaches. It marks the second straight year that Laws has been tabbed as the league's top individual performer, while Mitchell has won the league honor for the first time.

Laws, who was the 2003 Horizon League cross country individual champ, earned all-league honors with a sixth place finish at the 2004 Horizon League Cross Country championship, while helping lead Butler to the team title. He then went on to earn All-America honors with a 19th place finish at the 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country Championship, while leading Butler to a fourth place team finish. It was the highest team national finish for the Bulldogs in school history!

Mitchell was the 2004 Horizon League individual champ, helping Butler to the women's team championship. She was headed for a top finish at the Great Lakes Regional meet, but suffered a broken foot late in the race and wound up finishing 45th. Mitchell helped Butler earn its first berth in the NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championship, but she was unable to run at the national meet.

The two individual awards capped perhaps the most decorated cross country season in Butler history! Butler's men, paced by league individual champ Andrew Sherman, swept the top six spots at the 2004 Horizon League Championship, and seven different Butler runners earned all-league recognition. Butler's women placed eight runners on the all-league team, including freshman Genni Gardner who was named league Newcomer of the Year.

Butler coach Joe Franklin was named Horizon League Coach of the Year for both men's and women's cross country, and then he was named NCAA Division I Men's National Coach of the Year!