Women's Cross Country Wins Spider Alumni Open; Men's Team Takes Second
09/02/2006 | Cross Country
Sept. 2, 2006
Men's Results
RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond women's cross country team swept its way to victory at the season-opening Spider Alumni Open and the men's squad finished second, just three points back on Saturday morning at St. Catherine's Field.
The Richmond women's team took the first seven places among collegiate runners and seven of the top nine overall. The Spiders had 15 points, followed by Longwood in second with 60 and VCU in third with 68.
"We're really pleased with the way we ran as a team," Richmond women's coach Lori Taylor said. "That's what we are trying to accomplish, running together as a team. That's probably the best we've run as a team in the five years since I've been here. If you look at those times, we were right on top of each other."
Senior Amanda Russell finished second overall, behind unattached runner Maria Elena-calle, who ran the two-mile race in 11:22.50. Russell led the college runners with a time of 11:32.95, followed by Spider freshmen Amy Van Alstine (11:34.70) and Alyssa Mankin (11:40.29).
Richmond junior Kylee Schuler took fourth among college runners in a time of 11:41.30, sophomore Mary Bertram finished fifth (12:01.90) and sophomore Mary Bertram was sixth (12:01.90). Sophomore Emily Nagle finished seventh in 12:16.70 and junior Shelby Faircloth was 16th in 13:03.77.
"The dynamic of the team has really come together the last two weeks, but I think that even started last spring," Taylor said. "Freshmen Amy and Alyssa ran very well and Kylee and Amanda were great leaders today. The talent and potential is there, we just need a few girls to step up and pull us a little tighter. We've got to stay healthy, we're not that deep, but if we run like we did today we should have a shot at that Atlantic 10 Championship."
The Richmond men's team came in second with 33 points, just three behind meet winner VCU (30). Longwood took third with 68 points.
"Hurricane Ernesto affected the course, but it was still a great meet," Richmond men's coach Steve Taylor said. "We had some good competition between us and VCU, they edged us out. The race really came down to the last 300 meters."
Richmond freshman Matt Llano finished fifth overall and fourth among college runners in a time of 15:57.42 on the 5K course. Fellow freshman Andrew Benford took fifth among college runners in 15:58.16 and junior Mike Stubbs took sixth in 16:04.17. Junior Jonathan Molz placed eighth in 16:10.11 and sophomore Garrett Graham took 10th in 16:14.14.
Sophomore Jeff Strojny (16:18.31) finished 15th overall and 11th among college runners in 16:18.31, sophomore Sean Welsh (16:33.96) was 18th overall and 14th among college runners and freshman Jon Wilson (16:36.42) took 20th overall.
"The freshmen ran well and the upperclassmen ran well, we really ran well as a team," Steve Taylor said. "We have some work to do, but we're pleased with the way we have started off the year. We wanted to get the upper hand on VCU, but we still had a great race."
The Spiders return to action on Saturday, Sept. 16 at the Navy Salty Dog Invitational in Annapolis, Md.