Greenville, SC: The NCCAA is pleased to announce John Driskill of Alice Lloyd College as the 2018 Wheeler Award Recipient for Division II Men’s Cross Country.
Driskill joined the Eagles cross country team his sophomore year with no previous running experience. That year, he improved on his first 8k time of 37:38 to 32:30 by the end of the year. The native of Jackson, Kentucky has helped the Eagles improve at the NCCAA DII Men’s Cross Country National Championship every year with 7th (2015), 5th (2016), and 3rd (2017) place finishes. In his junior year, he had two top 10 finishes and a top 3 finishes. This season (2018), he suffered an off-season knee injury which prohibited him from running until October. Despite this, he bounced back to help lead his squad back to the National Tournament once more, where the Eagles earned 3rd Place for the second consecutive year.
The senior now captains the team and leads by example on and off the course. Driskill has volunteered at Bethel Mennonite Camp for the last 7 years through leading activities, counseling children, and leading praise and worship. He has also helped with maintenance for local camps and ministries as well as missions outreach in the local eastern Appalachian region.
In the classroom, Driskill holds a 3.45 GPA in kinesiology and won the Alice Lloyd College Kinesiology Award for being the top student in the program. Driskill has also earned NCCAA and NAIA Scholar-Athlete honors.
“John’s leadership has been invaluable to our team’s success,” stated Head Coach Brandon Arnold. “He has helped lay the foundation and created the culture we have in our program. John’s work-ethic has rubbed off on his teammates and helped the overall success of our team.”
The Wheeler Cross Country Award, for men, is sponsored by John and Jody Wheeler who have been involved in athletic activities of Christian high schools and colleges for many years. The Wheelers continue to actively participate in the area of athletics and wish to promote athletics in Christian colleges. They have chosen to do this by a special individual award for excellence. This award was established in order to enhance excellence in Christian cross country competition and to perpetuate the Christian philosophy and faith as exemplified through Christ-like cross country participation in NCCAA member institutions.
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