Throughout the 2018-19 academic year, the Great Lakes Valley Conference will celebrate its 40th anniversary by recognizing 40 teams that made a significant impact both on campus and at the Conference level. This week’s featured team is the 1995 Lewis University men’s cross country squad.
40 TEAMS | 40 YEARS
WEEK 8: 1995 Lewis Men’s Cross Country
SEASON SUMMARY
After capturing team titles at the Valparaiso Invitational and Illinois Benedictine Invitational, as well as a second-place result at the NCAA Division I-loaded National Catholic Invitational, the 1995 Lewis men’s cross country team captured its fourth consecutive and sixth overall GLVC Championship in record fashion. The Flyers scored a GLVC-record 16 points for the win at the Conference meet, hosted by Northern Kentucky in Silver Grove, Kentucky, while tying the league record with six runners in the top 10. The Flyers also became the first Lewis team in any sport to win four straight GLVC crowns. It also marked the fourth consecutive season a Flyer broke the tape first. After Les Stoklosa earned back-to-back league titles and GLVC Runner of the Year honors in 1992 and 1993, Charles Mulinga accomplished the same feat in 1994 and 1995. Mulinga won his second straight GLVC title with a 10,000-meter time of 31 minutes, 50 seconds. He is one of 11 runners in GLVC history to win two or more Conference crowns. Jeff DeGraw captured his fifth of what would end up being nine GLVC Coach of the Year accolades by 2001. DeGraw led the Flyers to second place at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, followed by a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships with 175 points, highlighted by Mulinga winning his second straight NCAA title in 30:20.12. Mulinga shaved 30 seconds off his winning time of 30:50.9 in 1994.
IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS
Charles Mulinga
- Back-to-back NCAA Champion; Won by 21 seconds in a time of 30 minutes, 20.12 seconds
- Two-time All-American
- Two-time All-Great Lakes Region
- Two-time NCAA Great Lakes Regional Champion
- Won his second straight GLVC Championship, covering the 10,000 meters in 31:50
- GLVC Runner of the Year
- Earned back-to-back All-GLVC honors
Tom Boyd
- Two-time All-Great Lakes Region
- Placed second at the GLVC Championship in 33:00
- Earned second of three straight All-GLVC accolades
Miroslaw Bieniecki
- All-America (one of three)
- All-Great Lakes Region
- Placed third at the GLVC Championship in 33:19
- Earned first of two straight All-GLVC awards
Carl Norris
- Placed fourth at the GLVC Championship in 33:20
- Earned back-to-back All-GLVC honors
David Locker
- Placed sixth at the GLVC Championship
- Captured first of four consecutive All-GLVC honors
- Would go on to be a two-time All-American
Tim Donahugh
- Placed 10th at the GLVC Championship
- Earned All-GLVC distinction
Jeff DeGraw
- GLVC Coach of the Year
- Honor was his fifth of what would end up being nine GLVC Coach of the Year awards by 2001
LASTING LEGACY
Not only did the 1995 Lewis squad set the league record for lowest point total (16) at the GLVC Championships, which still stands today, it added to what is arguably the greatest era of GLVC men’s cross country. In the mid-1990s, the GLVC saw a pair of teams finish in the top 12 at the NCAA Championships from 1994 to 1997, and boasted the national champion in three of those four years. Just two years removed from Mulinga’s back-to-back NCAA crowns, Southern Indiana’s Elly Rono claimed the 1997 national title. As for Mulinga, his legacy in the GLVC was dominant, but brief. He transferred to Lewis from Blinn Community College (Texas) in the spring of 1994. During his short two-year stay at Lewis, Mulinga set track and cross country standards that may never be challenged. He recorded six national championships in track and field and another two in cross country, which combined for the most NCAA titles ever won by a Lewis student-athlete. In cross country, he won conference, regional and national crowns in 1994 and 1995, never lost a race, and set a course record every time he competed. Mulinga competed in the 1993 and 1995 World Track and Field Championships, and in 1996 he became the only Lewis graduate to participate in the Olympics when he competed for his native Zambia. In 1999, he was inducted in the Lewis Hall of Fame. Since the 1995 season, Lewis runners have added to the program’s rich tradition by earning five GLVC Championships and Runner of the Year accolades, including Colin Jones in 1998 and 1999, Arturo Cabral in 2000, and Andy Tremble in 2005 and 2006. The Flyers have also seen eight newcomers named GLVC Freshman of the Year, including Darren Hancock (1997), Cabral (1998), Mike Cropper (1999), Braulio Benitez (2001), Tremble (2003), Andrew McLain (2010), Deivi Tahiraj (2014), and Dan Laskero (2017). As a team, Lewis has returned to form in recent years under the direction of head coach James Kearney, having earned bids to the NCAA Championships the past two seasons following a drought that dated back to 2001. At the 2017 NCAA Championships, Southern Indiana finished 12th, Lewis was 13th and Bellarmine was 15th, marking the first time in Conference history that three men’s squads have placed in the top 15 at the national meet.