University of Richmond
Atlantic 10 Championship
Molz Finishes Third, Men's and Women's XC Take Second At A-10 Championship
10/27/2007 | Cross Country
Oct. 27, 2007
Men's Results (PDF) | Women's Results (PDF)
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Jonathan Molz finished third overall, leading the Richmond men's cross country team to a program-best second-place finish at the 2007 Atlantic 10 Championship Saturday in a torrential downpour in Philadelphia. Andrew Benford was sixth while Kylee Schuler was eighth, also leading the women to their second-consecutive runner-up finish.
The men's second-place finish is its highest in program history, thanks to Molz (25:45), Benford (25:51), Matt Llano (12th, 26:03), Jon Wilson (16th, 26:18) and Tom Davis (17th, 26:20) all finishing in the top 20 overall.
Benford and Llano garnered All-Conference honors, along with Llano who finished 12th.
"The men ran an unbelievable race today in very adverse conditions," said men's head coach Steve Taylor. "We were not too far behind La Salle, who beat us just by an average of eight seconds a man. Molz's performance was true senior leadership today and Benford was brilliant down the stretch. I was very proud of the effort; our guys embraced the weather and laid it on the line."
Led by Schuler, the women's team collected it second second-place finish in as many years. The senior was eighth overall in a time of 18:53. She was followed closely by freshman Nicol Traynor (19:13). The pair were named to the All-Conference Team.
"I'm proud of girls, it was a good effort," said women's head coach Lori Taylor. "But we really felt we had a chance to contend for the title today. Kylee and Nicol ran very well, and I was very pleased with Julie Rechel. She's a freshman and ran very well for us today."
Rechel finished 17th overall in a time of 19:24. Amy Van Alstine, who was ill most of the week, finished 20th (19:38).
The Richmond men collected 54 points, finishing behind A-10 champion La Salle. The Explorers had three runners in the top five, while Duquesne's Tom Slosky won the men's individual title (25:39).
Also for the Spiders, Hunter Willis took 51st (27:15), Sean Welch took 60th (27:32), Dan Petty was 95th (28:28), Calvin Virgilio was 110th (28:46) and Cass Meadows was 131st (30:45)
La Salle also won the women's team title, again placing three in the top five. Christina DeRosa of Massachusetts was the women's individual champion (18:27).
Diana Filtz was 26th (19:58) for the Spider women, followed by Karen Guthrie in 31st (20:08), Shelby Faircloth in 34th (20:13), Alyssa Mankin in 54th (20:39), Mary Bertram in 55th (20:40), Erin Lunny in 56th (20:42) and Julie Stevenson in 131st (25:10).
