University of Richmond Athletics
Spider Cross Country Unveils 2009 Schedule
07/23/2009 | Cross Country
July 23, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The University of Richmond cross country team has announced its 2009 schedule and the season begins Saturday, September 5 with the annual Spider Alumni Open at St. Catherine's Field in Richmond. The schedule also features meets at Virginia and North Carolina.
The men's and women's teams are each coming off successful 2008 campaigns as Lori Taylor's women's squad captured the Atlantic 10 Championship, while Steve Taylor's men's squad saw rising senior Matt Llano compete in the NCAA National Championship.
The team kicks off the season by hosting the Spider Alumni Open at St. Catherine's Fields, before heading to North Carolina for the annual UNC Challenge on Saturday, September 19 in Chapel Hill. Richmond heads north on Friday, October 2 for the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh, which brings together more than 100 universities to compete in the prestigious event.
The Spiders are in Charlottesville for the Panorama Farms Invitational on Friday, October 16 - a meet that welcomes a select group of teams including the host Virginia, Villanova, Tennessee, Syracuse, Duke and others top-flight Division-I cross country programs.
The championship portion of the season commences Saturday, October 31, as the Spiders head to St. Louis looking to win a pair of A-10 titles. A year ago, rising junior Nicol Traynor lead the women's team to the title with her third-place finish. In all, the women placed four runners in the top-11 to earn All-Conference honors. Rising sophomore Katie Spratford finish sixth en route to Atlantic 10 Championship Most Outstanding Rookie honors.
The men return a loaded team, which includes Llano -- last year's A-10 runner-up, NCAA All-Region performer and NCAA National Championship qualifier. Llano and rising senior Andrew Benford earned All-Conference honors and led the men to a third-place finish.
Benford finished fourth overall at the 2008 Championship and carried that momentum into a dazzling track season in which he became the first-ever Spider to win the A-10 Outdoor Track Championship Most Outstanding Performer Award. Benford competed at the NCAA Regional Championship and ran one of the top 3,000m steeplechase times in the nation.
Richmond returns to Charlottesville to close out the regular season with the Cavalier Invitational on Friday, November 6, before heading to Louisville, Ky., for the 2009 NCAA Southeast Region Championships.
The men and women are coming off top-eight team finishes at the NCAA Regional last season. Both teams return their All-Region performers and their Academic All-America selections to this year's squad.
Llano finished seventh overall in 2008 to qualify for the NCAA Championships, while Traynor earned First Team All-Region honors last year with her 14th-place finish that narrowly missed a trip to the NCAA Championships by less than two seconds. She completed a stellar outdoor track season where she established program records in the 5,000m (16:17), 3,000m steeple (10:27) and 3,000m (9:36).
The cross country season concludes at the 2009 NCAA National Championships, set for Monday, November 23 in Terre Haute, Ind.
