Lady Braves Earn PBC Sportsmanship Award

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The UNCP women's cross country squad has been named the recipient of the Peach Belt Conference Team Sportsmanship award for the 2009 women's cross country season the conference announced Wednesday.

The Peach Belt Conference is proud to present the Team Sportsmanship Award Program. The awards program, which includes honoring one team from each of the league's 12 championship sports, will also recognize one institution with the 'Institution of the Year Sportsmanship Award.'

The program presents an award following each championship season to the team in that sport that best exemplifies the spirit of sportsmanship and generally conducts themselves with a high degree of integrity, character and class. The team award is selected by other teams who compete in that sport. Points are awarded based on how each team finished in the voting and, in June, the institution with the highest totals will receive the 'PBC Institution of the Year Sportsmanship Award.'

UNCP joins Montevallo (volleyball), Francis Marion (men's soccer), Georgia Southwestern (women's soccer) and Georgia College (men's cross country) in the universities honored for the fall 2009 season.

Headed by head coach and UNCP alumnus Gary Aycock, the Lady Braves sent six of its runners to Wingate University on Nov. 7 to compete in the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship 6K race. The women as a team placed 13th out of 23 total teams and had five runners individually place in the top 100.