University of Richmond Athletics
Women's Cross Country Wins Navy Invitational; Men's Team Finishes Third
09/16/2006 | Cross Country
Sept. 16, 2006
Women's Results
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Freshman Amy Van Alstine finished second to lead the Richmond women's cross country team to victory at the nine-team Navy Salty Dog Invitational on Saturday at the USNA Cross Country Course. The Spider men's team finished third out of seven teams.
The Richmond women's team scored 24 points to cruise to victory over second-place Navy (53) and third-place Loyola (103).
"It was a great team race," Richmond women's coach Lori Taylor said. "The girls went out together, Amy, Amanda, Kylie and Alyssa really ran together as long as they could. We ended up having a 56 second spread for our top five."
Van Alstine finished the 6K course in 22:50.22 to finish second out of 94 runners. Loyola's Andrea Rovegno won the race in 22:41.56.
"We're happy for Amy, it really came down to the end there, the girl from Loyola got away from her in the last 100 meters," Richmond women's coach Lori Taylor said. "She ran a pretty tough race for a freshman."
The Spiders had their top five runners finish in the top nine and two of them ran times that currently rank in the top 10 on the USNA Course records. Van Alstine's time is the sixth-fastest ever on the USNA Course, while senior Amanda Russell placed third with the eighth-fastest time on the course in 22:58.58.
Junior Kylee Schuler took fourth in 23:02.69 which is the courses 11th fastest time. Freshman Alyssa Mankin placed sixth in 23:31.03 and sophomore Mary Bertram took ninth in 23:46.04. Junior Shelby Faircloth was 27th in 24:46.21.
"Overall our times on a sloppy day we're pretty good," Taylor said. "We're running well as team and running good performances."
Richmond freshman Matt Llano finished 13th to lead the Richmond men's team to a third-place finish out of seven teams. America won the race and Navy took second.
"It was a very good day for us, we're happy to place third," Richmond men's coach Steve Taylor said. "A couple of teams that we beat are really solid teams. Obviously American and Navy are both very tough teams on the national level.
Llano took 13th out of 70 runners in a time of 25:51.50 on the 8K course, leading the Spiders for the second-straight race to start the season. Junior Hunter Willis placed 17th in a time of 26:01.77, junior Jonathan Molz took 24th in 26:26.15 and junior Mike Stubbs was 29th in 26:36.71.
"To a man we ran very well," Steve Taylor said. "We ran as team in a pack. Llano ran an excellent race to lead our team. Willis, Molz and Stubbs also ran really well, as did the rest of the top six."
Freshman Jon Wilson took 36th in 27:08.43 and sophomore Jeff Strojny followed in 37th in 27:09.77. Freshman Ryan Buhle took 46th (27:47.60), sophomore Garrett Graham was 52nd (28:14.53), sophomore Sean Welsh was 55th 28:22.51 and sophomore Dan Petty was 66th (29:47.20).
"It was a good day for us," Steve Taylor said. "We had a good close pack, there was roughly 1:20 between our first runner and sixth. I'm pleased with that. We have areas we need to improve over the next few weeks, but we will keep getting better and keep moving everyone forward."
