April 29, 2007

Lipscomb's Jonathan Eckberg put on an impressive show Saturday in the eighth annual running of the County Music Marathon.

Eckberg finished 13th in the grand division, covering the 26 miles in 2:28 minutes, a personal best. Kenya's Simon Wansai, the winner of the race, finished in a time of 2:13.52.

One of 6,300 runners who signed up for the marathon, Eckberg was the first runner from the state of Tennessee to cross the finish line. More than 23,000 runners participated in the half-marathon.

Eckberg runs 120-plus miles per week and competes in a number of marathon distance races. He was 252nd our of 40,000 runners in the 2005 LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon. He finished 11th last season in the Country Music Marathon with a time of 2:34.49.

A former member of the Lipscomb cross country team, Eckberg serves as a graduate assistant for both the cross country and track programs, working for coach Karen Robichaud.

He graduated from Lipscomb in 2004 after winning Most Valuable Runner his junior and senior seasons.