Oct. 4, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Junior Eric Mayes (Pensacola, Fla.) became the first ever Argonaut Cross Country runner to earn the runner of the week honors in the Gulf South Conference. Mayes finished third in the Gulf Coast Cross Country Stampede this past weekend to help his team to a second place team finish. He covered the 8k (5 mile) run in 27:13, ironically finishing just behind last year's All-American Michael Padilla. Interestingly, Padilla never won the runner of the week award, despite owning five of the top 10 performances in Argonaut history.

Mayes finished last Saturday's race only behind Travis Stewart (Rutgers) and Padilla (running unattached). Therefore, Eric was officially the 2nd place finisher among the 60 collegiate runners. By finishing ahead of all the runners from a strong Florida Gulf Coast team and all the runners from Regional rival Florida Tech, Mayes earned the respect of the Gulf South Conference voters for runner of the week. Eric previously earned a Second Team All-GSC Selection in 2006, for his performance in the Conference Championships.

UWF graduate Michael Padilla never won the award despite finishing his career as an All-American. Padilla had several worthy performances over the last couple of season, but each time he had a great race, someone else had a landmark performance also. However, it was only fitting that Padilla finished five seconds ahead of his former teammate Mayes during the performance that would give the Argos their first ever GSC runner of the week award.