AVE MARIA, Fla.- The Ave Maria University cross country team swept The Sun Conference's weekly awards, which were announced Monday afternoon by the league office. Freshman Jackson Pope was named Sun Conference Runner of the Week for the men, while senior Mary Goetz was the conference Runner of the Week on the women's side.

The Gyrenes began their 2021 seasons on Saturday morning, running in the St. Thomas University Cross Country Invitational. The men's team left Miami Gardens with the team victory, topping three other teams in the field. The women's field was tops among NAIA schools, and finished second overall behind NCAA Division II Nova Southeastern University. 

Pope is just the fourth male runner in Ave Maria history to earn Sun Conference Runner of the Week honors. He is also the first freshman in five years to be named the top runner in the conference for a given week, and is just the second male runner in school history to be selected as the Runner of the Week in his collegiate debut.

Pope led the way for the Gyrenes in his first collegiate race, guiding AMU to the team title. The Naples native finished the 5k course in 17:10.82, good for individual runner-up honors behind Nova's Joseph Salerno. Pope's time was the third-fastest 5k time in school history, behind two times from four-time NAIA National Championship qualifier Gabriel Hogan. 

Goetz is the Sun Conference Runner of the Week for the fourth time in her AMU career, but earns the honor for the first time since her freshman campaign in 2018. Her four conference accolades rank second overall in school history behind only the aforementioned Hogan, who was Sun Conference Runner of the Week seven times from 2016-2019.

As has become the norm over the past few years, Goetz was Ave Maria's top finisher in Miami Gardens on Saturday morning. The three-time NAIA National Championships qualifier finished second in the 5k race, crossing the finish line at 20:11.09. Goetz was the only NAIA runner to finish St. Thomas' course in under 21 minutes, with only Ivanova Yanes from Nova Southeastern (19:51.27) finishing ahead of the senior.

Ave Maria is back in action later this week, the second of a stretch where the Gyrenes will compete four times in five weekends. The Gyrenes will head to Macon, Georgia to compete in the Middle Georgia Invitational. The starting gun is set to go off in Macon at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.