Spider Women Cruise to Rider Invitational Title

Friday, September 16

Rosedale Park (Pennington, N.J.)

6:00 PM

University of Richmond

Rider University Invitational

09/17/2016 | Cross Country

By: Richmond Athletics

PENNINGTON, N.J. - The University of Richmond women's cross country team was at its best on Friday afternoon as it circled the field to win the Rider University Invitational total by a staggering 33-point margin.

Tara Hanley paced the Spiders in the 6.15K race, finishing second overall with a time of 21:58.86 with her teammate Marisa Ruskan following close behind in fifth with a 22:10.91 mark. Ave Grosenheider rounded out the top 10 with a 22:20.24 time while Kylie Regan (11th, 22:21.48) and Claire Brown (13th, 22:27.86) each secured top-15 finishes.

"This was a good test for our team," head coach Lori Taylor said of the dominant effort. "The girls went out as a nice pack with our top six staying basically together through 4K. That's what we need as a team. I'm also pleased to a 29 second split for our top 5 and 39 second split for our top 7. Given this was a 6.15K course it's an indication our team strength is good. Tara ran a good race and made a strong move in the final 400M to nearly win the race. Overall it was a good, solid effort."

Richmond bested eight other programs to claim the victory, building upon its second-place finish in the Spider Alumni Open.

In the 8K race, the Richmond men were paced by Alex Lucking who rolled to an 11th-place finish with a time of 25:08.22. The team went on to finish eighth overall in the event.

"Alex and Johnny (Hogue) had a good effort today and have made nice improvement in just two weeks," head coach Steve Taylor added. "I was excited to see Freshman Seamus Otto handle his first 8K quite well. We'll take a couple positives away from this and keep our eye on our team goal this season."

More in-depth coverage can be found by following the Spiders on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and SkyPixel and by reading head coach Steve Taylor's blog.