HOOVER, Ala. – Mercer University's cross country team closed out its 2010 season on Saturday morning at the NCAA South Regionals, hosted by Samford University. The Bears' women's team placed 21^st out of 25 teams, while the men finished 16^th of 18.

The Mercer women were led by sophomore Kacie Niemann, who was 82^nd out of 186 runners in the 6K race. Niemann's time was 22:13.95 minutes, shattering her own MU 6K time by 50 seconds!

Sammy Woller, a freshman, was the Bears' second finisher – and 110^th oversll – in a time of 22:47.75.Were it not for teammate Niemann being in the race this year, Woller also would have eclipsed the Bears' 6K record as she now owns the second-fastest time in MU history at that distance.

Two more freshmen – Lena Hamvas and Linda Batna – were MU's third and fourth placers. Hamvas was 138^th (23:16.18) and Batna 142^nd (23:28.94). Hamvas' clocking proved to be the fourth-best in school history, meaning that Bears' runners establshed three of the school's top four 6-kilometer times at the championships.

Rounding out the Mercer participants in the race was Christina Kivi in 153^rd (23:39.28), senior Clara Densmore in 165^th (24:14.23) and Kasie Knapper in 175^th (24:40.22).

While the 6K distance had only been contested one other time previously - by a very good Bears team in 2005 - this year's edition eclipsed their team average result by 1:31 minutes.

In the men's 10k race, sophomore Jacob Law paced a trio of MU runners finishing within the top 100 finishers. Law was 63^rd in a clocking of 32:24.90, missing the school record (held by standout Justin Parker) by less than five seconds.

Sophomore Chris Svidesskis was 88^th in a time of 33:07.52, followed by freshman Sony Prosper in 92^nd place in a time of 33:12.24.

Law, Svidesskis and Prosper's times were the second, third and fourth fastest in school history at the 10K distance.

Sophomore Andrew Weems was 107^th (33:43.35) and senior Marc Kushinka in 130^th (34:46.87). Geremy Skeen (36:49.17) and Nick Huguenard (36:59.80) rounded out the MU men's finishers.

The men's team also shattered the team 10K average record - set in 2003 by MU's only other team to compete at the regionals - by running almost 49 full seconds better.