University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Spider Alumni Open
Richmond Men and Women Win Spider Alumni Open
09/01/2007 | Cross Country
Sept. 1, 2007
RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond men's and women's cross country teams opened their seasons by beating Virginia Commonwealth in the 2007 Spider Alumni Open Saturday morning at St. Catherine's Park. Kylee Schuler, who broke the women's meet record, led the Spiders' sweep of the top three spots along with Alyssa Mankin and Amy Van Alstine. Matt Llano and Jonathan Molz finished second and third in the men's meet.
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The meet was a dual between the cross-town rivals, with a number of unattached runners that included Spider cross country alumni. Schulyer took first in the women's two-mile meet in a meet-record time of 11:03.1. She was followed by teammate Mankin (11:12.7) and Van Alstine (11:24.0).
The previous record of 11:04.8 was set in 2004 by Amanda Russell.
Spiders' freshman Diana Filtz was fourth in 11:40.1, followed by Mary Bertram (11:57.0) and freshman Erin Lunny (12:02.1) to round out the top-six scoring places.
The highest Rams' finisher was Danielle William, who took seventh, in a time of 12:15.3.
"Kylee and Alyssa did a great job for us today to take the top two places," said director of cross country and track & field Lori Taylor. "I was very proud of our team and how they ran in their first meet this year. We ran tough and strong and had a good showing overall. This will be a great meet to build on for the season."
The men's 5K meet saw VCU's Steven Mutisya take the top scoring spot in a time of 15:24.8. The Spiders' took the next five spots in the meet scoring, helping both the men and women win the meet. Llano (15:27.3) was second, Molz (15:37.1) was third, Jeff Strojny (15:55.6) was fourth, Jon Wilson was fifth (16:00.8) and Hunter Willis was sixth (16:18.0).
"Overall it was a very good meet for us," said men's head coach Steve Taylor. "With this being our first meet, I was happy with the performance, particularly of the younger guys. This is a good benchmark for us this season. But I would like to see us start working more closely and doing a better job of pack running, especially after the mile marker."
The Spiders have next week off before returning to action at the Navy Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 15 in Anapolis.
