Athletics
Men’s Cross Country Season Recap
Men’s cross country was led by two talented runners, Patrick Lowry ’27 (left) and Kevin Shank ’27.—Photos courtesy VMI Athletics.
The future of the VMI men’s cross country program looks bright, led by the efforts of stellar rats Kevin Shank ’27 and Patrick Lowry ’27.
Shank was named the Southern Conference Male Freshman of the Year following his performance at the SoCon Championship race, where he placed 11th overall with an 8K time of 25:18.6 to pace the team. The finish qualified the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, native for Second Team All-SoCon honors, the best mark for a VMI runner since Gavin Jenkins ’22 accomplished the feat at the 2021 SoCon race by placing eighth overall at the league contest.
The VMI men finished eighth overall at the SoCon race with 184 points.
Shank’s potential was discovered after the first race of the season at the Richmond Spider Alumni Open, where he earned SoCon Male Runner of the Week honors for placing 35th overall at the competition.
Shank was the lead VMI runner in every race this fall, and Lowry was close behind in second at every meet. Lowry’s best finish of the year came at the Richmond Spider Alumni Open, in which he finished 41st overall in 19:11 (6K).
Shank and Lowry represented VMI at the NCAA Regional in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where Shank placed 121st overall in 31:45 (10K), and Lowry came in 146th place overall in 32:17.
Patrick Kiernan ’25 was chosen to represent VMI at the race, as well, crossing the finish line in 34:39.3.
