--- Tusculum College's David Cooper posted a fifth place finish in the men's 5,000-meter run of the 2014 Niswonger Invitational held last weekend on the campus of East Tennessee State University at the MHSA Athletic Center.

Cooper, a junior from Greeneville, Tenn., posted an indoor time of 15:10.08 in a race that included runners from Davidson College, Emory University, Lindsey Wilson College, ETSU, Appalachian State University, Tennessee Wesleyan College, Gardner-Webb University, Bryan College, Mars Hill University, Queens University of Charlotte, Western Carolina University, USC Upstate and King University.

Cooper bests the "unofficial" 5K indoor school record time of 15:12 posted by Tusculum running great Simon Holzapfel at the 2010 Niswonger Invitational. Davidson junior Whitner Chase won the race with his time of 14:54.52, nearly eight seconds better than Eddie Mulder of Emory University. John-Paul Williamson of Lindsey Wilson finished third with his time of 15:05.59, while ETSU's Anders Ludvigsen finished fourth at 15:07.52. Cooper was fifth, followed by Kyle McFoy (Appalachian St.), Roderick Bowman (Tennessee Wesleyan), Michael McClay (Gardner-Webb), Anthony Simpson (Bryan) and Alex Griggs (Mars Hill) to comprise the top-10.

Cooper, a Chuckey-Doak High School graduate, is two-time All-South Atlantic Conference cross country honoree as he finished eighth at SAC Championship last fall with an 8K time of 26:15.8.

He followed that performance by finishing 24th at the 2013 NCAA Division II Southeast Region Championship. He posted a 10K time of 32:41.4 to gain All-Region status for a second straight season. He was in 37th place after 3.6 kilometers and moved up to 29th place at the 7K mark. Cooper ran the final three kilometers in just over 10 minutes to climb five more spots into 24th place, just inside the top-25 threshold to claim All-Region status. Cooper's finish was fourth-best among the South Atlantic Conference entrants in the field.

Cooper has also been excelling in the classroom as a 4.00 GPA honor student and was named the 2013 SAC Men's Cross Country Scholar Athlete of the Year. Last year, he was tabbed to the Capital One Academic All-America® second team, while majoring in biology.