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Last year, the Bowie State University men's cross country team knew it was on the cusp of success when the team finished second at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships.

Knowing the experience and core group of runners they had returning, the Bulldogs felt they could take their performance to the next level, and last week they did exactly that.

The Bulldogs won the program's first CIAA Championship on Oct. 22 in Cary, N.C., notching the low team score of 42 points – 25 points better than second-place Saint Augustine's College.

Upper Marlboro native and DeMatha High School graduate Daryl Sanders paced the Bulldogs. The junior took fourth place on the 8-kilometer course with a time of 26 minutes, 37.5 seconds.

Bulldogs coach Michelle Latimer was elated with the team's performance.

"At the beginning of the season, they told me ‘coach, we're going to win the CIAA this year,'" Latimer said. "I brought in a new assistant coach [Randy Smith] and we had two seniors and three juniors returning to the team this year and everybody clicked."

Rounding out the team score were Joseph Philpot (seventh/28:15.8), Damien Montgomery (eighth/28:17.2), Jamin Gallman (11th/28:30.7) and Byron Lewis (12th/28:37.2). Sanders said the team had a mentality that it wasn't going to be denied a title.

"This year, with coach Randy Smith to train under, it was a new face, a slightly new training regimen and overall this year we were a little more ambitious with our training," Sanders said. "We were willing to go the extra mile this year ... put in 110 percent."

Latimer said Montgomery was the heart and soul of the team.

"Since I've been here, it's always been like we've been right at the door," Montgomery said. "This year, we had all the pieces we needed and believed in coach Latimer and Smith and ourselves and wanted it bad enough. We knew what the goal was and we knew what we had to do."

The Bulldogs advance to an NCAA regional meet Nov. 7 in Mansfield, Pa.

"I think we'll fare well," Sanders said. "This will be my first regional race. I know it's a 10-kilometer race. Track season is right around the corner, and we want to end on a good note. The CIAA Championship is Bowie State's first victory in men's cross country and we're very proud."

E-mail Terron Hampton at thampton@gazette.net.