STATESBORO, GA ? Philosophically it is pretty much common sense that women are different than men and that is sometimes even truer in the realm of sports.

Never was that more obvious than at the Southern Conference’s Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships on the Southern Links Golf Club on Sunday, October 30.

The light on this gray subject matter was brought to the forefront by myriad different things.

For example: on the morning of the event the men involved were ranting and raving about how it was time to go and getting revved up.

In fact, one Western Carolina runner in the elevator at the La Quinta Inn where they were staying articulated to his fellow teammates that not only had he been up since 5 a.m. (the race commenced at 9:45 a.m.), but that it was “game time” and that the others needed to wake up. By the way ? this was 6:20 a.m.

The women on the other hand seemed a tad more nervous about the event, talking about how they hoped that they did okay and that they want to finish well for their teammates.

Obviously, little idiosyncrasies between the two genders on the morning of the meet to be sure, but different enough to illustrate the point.

The illustrated point became moot once the championship got underway around 9 a.m. because then everyone just became competitors.

On the day before Halloween it was pretty scary how fast these runners could churn out a mile and then a lot of times even improve on the next mile.

Even more frightening than this was Chattanooga’s Shannon Wommack. She was not hideous to look at or anything of that nature, but she could run.

That previous statement is probably a grand disservice to Wommack, who is now a three-time Southern Conference Cross Country Tournament champion.

Wommack won the event previously in 2002 (17:42) and in 2004 (17:38) and wanted to go out in her senior year as a champion.

She did so emphatically, breaking the 17-minute barrier with a time of 16:53 in the 5K race to take home the individual crown to Chattanooga.

The 2004 All-American bested her opponents in the race by almost a full minute, finishing her efforts on the day 55 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Brenna Burns of Davidson.

Even more enlightening on the type of competitor that the Conyers, GA, native is easily construed through the fact that Wommack, after finishing what seemed like to everyone just a brisk early morning jog for the senior, decided to go for another run after the women’s meet was over, particularly captivating since most in the race were just trying to keep down their continental breakfasts from their choice of hotel.

Chattanooga garnered both of the top individual spots in the championship, as Mocs’ men’s distance runner Ian Mayne took home the men’s title with an 8K time of 24:37.

Mayne, was not quite as dominant as his women’s counterpart in Womack, but still bested the second-place finisher by eight seconds.

The ironic thing about Mayne’s and Wommack’s wins is that both runners saw second place finishes as well since the Mocs finished in the second place in the team category in men’s and women’s.

This is where the differences between the men and the women come through fluidly again.

Appalachian State men’s cross country team placed five in the top 10 and its  coach was voted the coach of the year in the SoCon, but celebration (while eventful) was mild compared to the women’s winners jubilation.

The women’s winner was Davidson and when they won one team member threw up her water bottle into the air and then fell to the ground on her knees bawling and screaming over the fact that her team had accomplished the overall team win (not a team sport, huh?).

A great deal of that love for the team can adamantly be linked to the desire and attitude of Davidson’s head women’s coach, Jen Straub.

Straub, who coached her second Davidson club to a SoCon title in 2005 after giving the institution its first in 2003, won coach of the year, but was as humble as could be when winning the award.

From an outsiders point-of-view, one could muse that Straub’s philosophy won her team the crown.

Then again, who knows. One thing is for certain ? men and women may be different, but the goal is the same.

For two individuals and two teams last Sunday those goals were realized.