Peach Belt 20 in 20 - Game #17 - Men's Cross Country: 2000 PBC Championships

It seemed throughout the 2000 men’s cross country season that the entire year was leading up to one point: Kennesaw State vs. North Florida. When the two teams finally squared off on the campus of Columbus State University on Oct. 21, 2000, the match surpassed the hype as North Florida beat Kennesaw State 39-41 in the closest men’s championship ever run, before or since.

Kennesaw State was the six-time defending PBC Champion, the longest cross country championship win streak to this day. But the Ospreys of North Florida, who finished second to the Owls in 1997 and 1998, seemed poised to knock KSU off the throne and in 2000, they did just that.

“We knew it was going to be close,” said Mark VanAlstyne, who has coached the UNF team for 16 years and seen them rise from the NAIA ranks to their current Division I status. “We hated Kennesaw, but in a good kind of way. It started when we came into the Peach Belt and really became a rivalry at that race. We had a really close team that year that was very focused on winning the championship.”

UNF’s Zephernius Joseph blitzed the field as he won the 8k race in 25:25, averaging 5:06 per mile over the five-plus mile run. The junior was a full 30 seconds ahead of KSU’s Jari Venalainen, who was the defending race champion.

“This race was one of my best victories,” recalls Joseph. “It was my first conference title and also the first UNF team title. It was very special.”

KSU’s Edwin Bii finished fourth with Bob Sams in sixth and Greg Mason in seventh. KSU seemed poised to take a seventh straight championship, but UNF brought home their next four runners in 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th place while the KSU fifth finished 22nd.

Brett Parker, Jerry Reckart, Chris Madzik and Aaron Cuny ran together as a team for North Florida, all four crossing the line within 10 seconds of one another.

“I was yelling at our 3,4 and 5 guys with about 300 meters to go,” recalls VanAlstyne. “We were behind at that point, but we picked up 11 points on just Cuny’s finish in fifth and I was screaming at him to finish strong. That’s what I love about cross country: it doesn’t take much for seven, eight, nine other runners to pass you if you lose focus. We knew where the race was going to be won that day.”

Joseph went on to set the PBC Championship record in 2002 with a time of 24:06. He finished third at the National Championships and was named the co-Division II Athlete of the Year. He also ran in 2004 Olympics in Athens for St. Lucia, competing in the marathon.

The 2000 PBC Title would be the only one for North Florida while the women’s team took the crown in 2001 and 2003. North Florida left the Peach Belt starting with the 2005 season to transition to the Division I level.

“I enjoyed our time in the Peach Belt,” said VanAlstyne. “Division II is a wonderful place for a lot of schools. It’s a different ball game in Division I. DII was much more inclusive of all the athletes. We had good teams and national success and really faced great competition with the other conference schools. To this point in my career, our time in the Peach Belt was the most fun. Ultimately, we had to move on, but that was a great time for me and our teams.”

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