NEW MARKET, Va. - The George Mason men's cross country team kicked off its season today with a third-place finish at the James Madison University Open Invitational. The Patriots were led by three top 20
finishers, juniors Alex Zyryanov and Phil Blankenship finished seventh and 11th
respectively, while senior Parker Boudreau finished 18th.
"Overall it was a solid opener for us," said head cross country coach Andrew Gerard. "The
limited group that competed ran a pretty conservative race plan and that hurt
us a bit in terms of the team score."
Zyryanov paced the Patriots with a 7th-place finish in 25:25.00 followed closely by Blankenship in 11th with a time of 25:43.90. Boudreau, who finished second in the race last season, finished the race in 26:04.60 to claim 18th place.
Duke University won the race by placing runners in each of
the top six spots. Morgan Pearson led
Duke by finishing first overall with a time of 25:01.50. Zyryanov followed Duke closely to finish seventh.
Also competing for the Patriots were Stuart Lampen-Crowell (29th), Jacob Morgan (41st), Jason Hartman (42nd) and Tyler Oliver (62nd).
Mason finished behind Duke and Navy "B" in the standings
with Mary Washington, Longwood, Howard and Bridgewater rounding out the final
four spots in the standings.
Mason will look to build momentum from this race and
continue to prepare for the challenging schedule ahead. "We accomplished what we needed to today and
will move on to next week with a different group of racers and see where they
are," remarked Gerard.
The men's and women's cross country teams will both race next
weekend on Saturday, September 17th in the Delaware Invitational at
course in White Clar Creek State Park at the University of Delaware.
