Butler Duo Sweeps 2005 Horizon League Cross Country Athlete of the Year Awards

Dec. 6, 2005

Butler distance runners Andy Rayner and Victoria Mitchell have been named the 2005 Horizon League Men's and Women's Cross Country Athletes of the Year. The two were selected by a vote of the league's nine cross country head coaches.

Rayner was the individual winner at the 2005 Horizon League Cross Country Championship, held in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He helped lead Butler to the men's team championship, while finishing first at the league meet with a time of 24:21. The first team All-League runner went on to place seventh at the Great Lakes Regional meet, helping Butler to a berth in the NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country Championship. He placed 35th at the national meet with a time of 30:29.5 on the 10K course.

Mitchell earned her second consecutive league cross country Athlete of the Year award. She turned in the best season ever by a Butler female cross country runner with wins at the NCAA Pre-National Meet, the Horizon League Championship (for the second consecutive year) and the Great Lakes Regional Meet. She went on to earn All-America recognition with a fourth place individual finish at the 2005 NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championship. It was the highest national meet finish ever by a Butler female runner!

A two-time winner of the Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year Award and the 2005 NCAA Division I steeplechase national champ, Mitchell has been named as one of four finalists for the 2005 Cross Country Honda Sports Award, which is presented annually as part of The Collegiate Women Sports Awards program.

Butler has swept the Horizon League Cross Country Athlete of the Year awards for the past three seasons. Mitchell and Olly Laws captured the honors in 2004, while Laws and Becky Lyne won the awards in 2003. In 2002, Butler's Mark Tucker was the men's Athlete of the Year, while Detroit's Kim Hemstreet won the women's award.