Southeastern Press Release:
MOBILE, Ala. – The Southeastern Louisiana cross country squad stretched out their legs against strong competition Saturday at South Alabama's Azalea City Cross Country Classic.
“The conditions were ideal, the course was beautiful and we competed very well,” distance coach Brent Alfred said. “I'm proud of our athletes shaking off some rust after an off week and competing like they did.
Southeastern's men finished seventh out of 13 teams with Paul Arthur turning in the top Lion performance. The junior from Walker, La., finished 25th overall with a time of 27 minutes and 28.85 seconds in the 8k run.
Freshman Harry Wiggins placed 28th (27:32.64). Matt Mouton (28:13.21), Joseph Edwards (28:25.88) and Kyle Rudolph (28:28.39) placed 41st, 45th and 46th, respectively.
“We did very well on the men's side against teams like Auburn, South Alabama, Tulane, UAB and a host of others,” Alfred said. “It was a much better performance than last week. We're starting to get better as a team.”
Heather Fitzhenry led the way again this meet for the Lady Lions in the 6k run. The junior from Harvey, La., placed 34th (24:44.18). Freshman Leticia Shaban (25:00.91) and Lindsey Toups (25:06.47) finished 40th and 41st, respectively.
“Freshmen Harry Wiggins and Leticia Shaban had good performances,” Alfred said. “We're definitely headed in the right direction.”
Southeastern returns to action Sept. 22 in Baton Rouge, La., at the LSU Invitational.
Tulane Press Release:
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MOBILE, Ala. - After having their season opener ruined by Hurricane Isaac, the Tulane Cross Country program finally opened their season at the South Alabama Azalea City Classic. Paige Callahan posted her highest career finish with a fourth place showing on the women's course and Mark Manion ran a major personal best to finish 16th overall in the men's race. "I feel that coming into this meet I had mixed emotions about starting the season this late," said Tulane head coach Eric Peterson. "It was unfortunate that we had to cancel the first meet of the season due to the storm earlier this month. This is a much later start than we would normally have, but on the other side of that, it did give us a few more weeks to prepare and I think that paid off." Manion opened his 2012 campaign the way that he ended the 2011 slate, at the front of the Green Wave lineup. The sophomore shaved 52-seconds off of his previous personal best at the 8000-kilometer to place 16th overall in 26:37.44. Fellow sophomoreGeoffrey Zelek was the number three finisher in a personal-best time of 27:36.26, placing between rookies Adam Yohanan and Nick Meloro who ran 27:00.21 and 27:58.49, respectively. Jack White rounded out the scoring runners for the Olive and Blue with a 53rd place showing in 28:5426 to open his collegiate career. Tulane scored 147 team points to finish fifth out of 13 teams. Michael Villasin rounded out the TU finishers in 29:33.15. "The men raced first this morning and had a really strong front runner in Mark (Manion). He has done a great job in practice every day and he started the season right where he finished last year, as the team's top runner. He ran a big lifetime best for 8000-meters and that was good to see from him. Freshman Adam (Yohanan) was racing 8000 for the first time in his career and was in our number two spot. Geoffrey (Zelek) had a great performance for us today and ran what I think was the race of his life and that was a big reason we finished fifth as a team. I think the men's squad really kicked off season in a big way." The women's team scored 87 points and Callahan led the charge with a fourth place overall finish. The sophomore set a new personal best of 22:23.83 and was three second behind the third place finisher.Katherine Crabtree broke the tape in 23:25.75 to place 14th overall, while Emmi Aguillard placed 16th overall in a time of 23:31.78. Freshman Mikayla Sonneborn competed for the first time in her collegiate career and grabbed a 24th place showing in a time of 24:01.09 and Callie Turlington rounded out the scoring runners for the women's squad with a 31st place showing in a time of 24:24.98. Aimee Arceneaux was the final Green Wave competitor to cross the finish line, running 25:29.78 to place 49th out of 115 runners. "Paige ran with a lot of confidence today," Peterson said. "She went right to the front of the race and ran very aggressively. She walked away from the meet with her highest finish on an individual level and an impressive personal best at the 6000-meters distance. Our two seniors, Katherine and Emmi, really showed their experience today and ran really solid races to open their seasons. Freshman Mikayla Sonneborn came out and showed a level that she hasn't shown in training, so far, after battling a chest cold during the week and that is exciting to see from a young runner."
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Xavier Press Release:
MOBILE, Ala. — A school record by Catherine Fakler and personal bests by Matt Pieri and Kwame Jackson were among Xavier University of Louisiana's highlights from the Azalea City Classic cross country meet Saturday.
Fakler ran 6,000 meters in 24 minutes, 9.65 seconds to finish 28th out of 115 women. She broke her XU record of 24.10.3 set in 2011 at the LSU Invitational.
"I'm pretty excited," said Fakler, a sophomore. "It was my goal to break the record today. It was a flat course, and it was really pretty running by the water (Mobile Bay). I liked the course a lot."
Fakler finished ahead of 37 runners from NCAA Division I schools.
Pieri placed 18th out of 105 men and ran 8,000 meters in 26:39.71, beating his previous best by nearly 12 seconds. Jackson placed 20th in 26:52.13, his fastest by 35 seconds. Pieri's was the fastest 8K by a Gold Rush runner since Farris Gransberry set the school record of 25:54 at the 1998 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference meet.
"What was great was that I ran each mile faster than the previous one," said Pieri, a senior who beat 27 NCAA D-I opponents. "I just started the race in the back of the pack and picked runners off."
Also scoring for Xavier were Briana Simms (36th place, 24:52.15), Zahri Jackson (42nd, 25:08.79) and Hannah Finnegan (52nd, 25:37.55) in the women's race and David Holobowicz (43rd, 28:20.63), Aaron Yarmush (61st, 29:29.77) and Javon Mead (76th 30:30.42) in the men's. All four XU freshmen — Simms, Finnegan, Holobowicz and Yarmush — scored.
Xavier placed eighth out of 13 in the men's team scoring and ninth out of 15 in the women's. The Gold Nuggets were 20 points ahead of 10th-place Southeastern Louisiana, which was 12-0 against the XU women during the previous eight seasons, to pick up a rare victory against a non-HBCU member of NCAA D-I.
The top five Gold Rush runners averaged 28:22.54, the second-fastest at that distance during Joseph Moses' eight seasons as coach. The best during his tenure was 28:21.98 at the 2011 Gulf Coast Stampede in Pensacola, Fla.
It was the second meet of the season for both XU teams. The Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets will compete next Saturday in the ASICS Embry-Riddle Classic at Daytona Beach, Fla. Both Embry-Riddle teams are ranked 19th in the NAIA.