CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — With five seniors on this years roster, Campbellsville men's cross country was expected to produce on the field. They did exactly that and with the efforts of her team, Hilary Lakes was honored at Saturday nights banquet as the Mid-South Conference Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year.
The Tigers won the 2015 Mid-South Conference Championship by knocking off Shawnee State from the podium for the first time in five years. Campbellsville now qualifies as a team to the NAIA National Championship which takes place in Charlotte, N.C. on Nov. 21.
Lakes is in his sixth year at the helm of the Tigers and wins her first MSC Coach of the Year honor.
"Congratulations to Coach Lakes on being named MSC Coach of the Year by her peer coaches," said CU director of athletics, Rusty Hollingsworth. "She has done a great job leading our cross country program and is very deserving of this honor."
Lakes started her coaching career after working as a graduate assistant under Scott Hortness in 2009. She has coached six individuals to NAIA qualifying times as well as an NCCAA All-American in Brett Pierce two years ago.
Prior to 2015, only two male athletes were named to the All-Conference team but the Tigers had three this year.
Lakes has molded 43 student-athletes to become Academic All-MSC, which requires them to maintain a 3.25 GPA while competing. Also, Lakes had one student-athlete be named the Champions of Character, with Mallory Vest winning the award in 2014.
She has also led the Lady Tigers to  being named NCCAA All-Academic team for the past three years and the men's team in 2013, which requires a team cumulative GPA of 3.40 or higher. This past two school years (2013-2014 and 2014-2015) her men's and women's team had the highest team GPA at Campbellsville University for Athletics.
Lakes earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sports Management and Human Resources Management from North Central College (IL) in 2009 and completed her Masters in Business Management in 2010 from Campbellsville University. She began coaching as a graduate assistant in the fall of 2009 with the cross country and track and field program. She took over cross country as the head coach in 2010 and continued as the assistant track and field coach. She became the interim head coach of track and field in the spring of 2013 and took over as head coach in the summer of 2013.
As the interim head track coach, the women's track and field team won their first ever MSC Championships and Lakes was named the MSC Coach of the year for Women's track and field.
