Clemson's Ty McCormick during the ACC Cross Country Championships. Photo by Tyler Smith.

By Philip Sikes

CLEMSON – While the 2011 ACC Cross Country Championships performance was not what the Clemson men’s team desired, sophomore standout Ty McCormack was certainly an exception.

Running in front of a home crowd at the Musser Fruit Research Center just miles from the Clemson University campus, McCormack took to the forefront early in the race much to the delight of Tiger fans who came out to watch.

After a relatively slow start, McCormack raced to the lead for a good bit of the early part of the men’s 8,000-meter competition Saturday at the conference meet.

“I took the lead around the 2K mark in the race and tried to put them away by pushing as hard as I could,” he said.  “Unfortunately, some of the guys are a little older and stronger than me.  They got me at the end. I led up until about the 5K mark. I held on to finish eighth, which I’m happy with.  It was a 30-second PR (personal best) from the other home meet.”

McCormack’s previous best on an 8K course was also at Musser Farms – earlier this season in a win at the Clemson Invitational. He topped that easily on Saturday with an outstanding time of 23:28.2. On a day when NC State won its second men’s team championship in the last three years, McCormack gave Tiger fans and coaches a reason to smile.

He was honored as one of 14 runners to make the all-conference team.  He was the first Tiger since Matt Clark in 2007 to earn All-ACC acclaim. It was an honor not taken lightly by the Gainesville, GA native.  In his most recent race prior to the ACC Championships, McCormack fell at the Wisconsin Invitational and finished outside of the top 200 individually – easily the worst finish of his young career.

“It’s been a rough month,” he said.  “To recover like this on this course, I can’t complain.  Being All-ACC is a huge honor.  I know how tough this conference is, especially distance-wise.  Being able to do that as a sophomore is a huge deal.

“I can’t thank God enough for everything he’s done.  He gave me the strength to complete that race, because I was completely gassed.  I can’t be thankful enough for this race.”

Clemson distance coach Brad Herbster spoke with pride when reflecting on the race his sophomore leader had just completed.

“Ty ran a great race,” Herbster said.  “Our plan was to get up into the top 10.  He surged in the middle of the race pretty hard.  If he can ease off that a little, he’ll have a lot more success later on.  Ty was the team today. He used so much energy in the middle of the race. We’ve got to get him ready for regionals, we’ll see if he can be all-region.”

McCormack will have that opportunity in two weeks when the Tigers travel to Louisville, KY for the Southeast Regionals.