Written and Media by Jaylen Shelton.
Since the moment he stepped on Greenville University’s campus Andrew Sharp has been a dominant force for the Greenville Cross Country and Track and Field teams. In cross country he’s been Greenville’s top runner every year he’s run, and he made first team All-Conference each year. He is just as dominant in track and field, too. He was able to make it to Division 3 nationals each year. He also has Division 3 all-American awards in the 800-meter run to go along with that. This means he’s one of the best 800 runners in all of Division 3 Track and Field. Sharp has been a special runner since he came to Greenville, and all of his accolades reflect that.
Cross Country
In cross country, Sharp won the “Newcomer of the Year” award, for both Greenville and the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC), which meant he was the best freshman on Greenville’s team and in the SLIAC. He also won MVP for Greenville both his freshman and sophomore years. He got first team all-conference his freshman year, finishing in second place at the SLIAC with the time of 26:26, and he took fourth his sophomore year with a time of 25:50. This is the fastest time he ever ran for an 8000-meter race at this point in time. At first team All-Conference, he was one of the seven fastest people in the entire SLIAC championship race.
In his first two years of cross country Sharp was a great runner for Greenville, but then something happened. He didn’t run cross country his junior year because he left Greenville to go to North Carolina. Within a week, he didn’t like being there and wanted to come back to Greenville. He called Coach Brian Patton and told him that he wanted to come back. When he came back, though, the members of the cross country team thought that it was best that he did not run that year. He came back out of shape and they were already deep into the season. “It was one of the hardest things that I had to do. Watching them go to meets and win their first championship in 5 years and not being a part of it was hard,” Sharp said.
Track & Field
If you thought that Sharp was impressive in cross country, his track resume is even more impressive. He has won a total of nine Christian All-American awards, six in the 4×800 and three in the open 800, which meant that he finished in the top three for each of the races. He won the outdoor Christian National 800 in both his freshman year and junior year and finished third his sophomore year. He and a group of teammates won the 4×800 his sophomore and junior year and finished second his freshman year. He has qualified in the 800 for Division 3 nationals and received All-Americans in every event, which meant that he was one of the best 800 runners in all of the nation.
Sharp also owns five Greenville records: the outdoor 800 (1:50.10), the indoor and outdoor 4×800 (7:51) and (7:39), the indoor 500 (1:07), and the distance medley relay (10:16).
This year in cross country, after missing his junior year, Sharp is getting back into his old form. He started the season off with a seventh-place finish on the team, which is his first time ever not ending as Greenville’s first finisher. He followed that up with a 14th-place finish at the Midwest Classic. But after that meet the old Sharp returned, and at the Milliken H.W. Wright Classic he was Greenville’s number-one runner and finished with a time of 25:22. He finished 10th overall, at that. This past weekend he won the Bradley Pink Classic with a time of 26:16. Sharp is starting to return to his old form after missing a year of cross country and pretty soon be the old dominant Andrew Sharp.
Listen below for more about one of Greenville’s top athletes!
