NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane Green Wave cross country team swept the women's field Friday evening at City Park as they placed the top five individual finishers, scoring a perfect 15 points in the opening race of the season.
Coady, a freshman from Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada, won the short two-mile race just ahead of senior team captain Aubrey Phillips. Freshman Laurie Dalrymple, junior Cecelia Clarke and senior Jill Shriver rounded out the top five, respectively.
"I am very happy for our women. This was a great meet and a great win for us. You can really see that we worked hard over the summer and that really paid off," Tulane head coach Heather Van Norman said. "You can really see the difference in the runners all the way down. This meet also helped the freshmen get the jitters out of the way."
The women's field also included Jackson State, who placed second, and Southern Mississippi, Southeastern La., Xavier (La.) and Loyola (La.), finished respectively.
The win bodes well for the Green Wave going into the season which features big meets at Auburn, LSU and the Chili Pepper in Fayetteville, Ark. The freshman class appears to be strong and Van Norman believes the newcomers will really help the team throughout this season.
"Rebecca Coady is a very gifted athlete," Van Norman said of the Green Wave Invitational winner. "The whole freshman class is very inquisitive. They asked me questions before the meet today to get better and to better their mind for the race."
On an overcast day in New Orleans, the temperatures were cooler and the turnout large for Tulane's home cross country meet.
"It was very inspirational to see all of the local schools present here in one setting for a cross country meet. Some local high schools were in attendance, and Tulane administrators were here - it was great to see a really good turnout for the meet," Van Norman said.
Cross country scoring is recorded by awarding one point for each place a runner finishes, starting with one. Each school can only score points from their top five finishers in the race, and the fewest points will win the race for a team.
The Green Wave's next meet is Friday Sept. 7 in Hattiesburg, Miss., for the Southern Miss. Invitational.
On the men's side of the meet, Xavier placed first also sweeping the top five scoring positions, led by top finisher, freshman Milo Barry. Freshman David Salmon, juniors Joe Drexler-Dreis, Darren Wallace and Bryan Khan rounded out the top five of the men's race. The men's field also officially included Belhaven College.