Fairfax, Va - George Mason University's cross country teams both took first team places at the Mason Invitational hosted at the Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., making it two consecutive team wins for the men's team and the best team finish for the women's team this season.
The women's team dominated the field of five teams and recorded the best five scored finish times for a perfect score of 15 points. Sophomore Bailey Kolonich (first – 22:37.74), freshman Ciara Donohue (second – 22:40.04) and senior Victoria Doss (fourth – 22:51.77) all recorded their career-best finishes for cross country and were followed by two more Patriots – senior Jennifer Nakamura (sixth – 23:11.43) and freshman Carolyn Conley (seventh – 23:23.37). The other two top-seven finishers were unattached runners, one of them being another Mason representative – freshman Amber Hawkins, who completed the course with fifth-best time of 23:06.35.
Six more Mason runners finished in the top 20 of the 39-runner race – freshman Caitlin Kelly (11th – 24:09.46), sophomore Rachel Lewis (12th – 24:10.35), senior Siobhan Klie (14th – 24:17.84), and the freshman trio Gillian Saul (16th – 24:33.08), Hunter Samuelson (18th – 25:01.68) and Suzanne Abribat (19th – 25:10.75). Sophomore Kelsie Rohler also crossed the finish line for the Patriots on the rainy yet successful day with a time of 26:11.30, which was the 26th-best finish.
Virginia Tech, who finished with 55 points with the help of two top-10 finishes, and VMI – 71 points and one top-10 individual finish – followed the Patriots in the top three in the team standings, while Mount St. Mary's and Brooklyn College completed the field.
The men's team did not get the first overall finish, which went to Andrew Eason from Virginia Tech, but junior Steven Flynn's second-best finish in 25:12.64 and redshirt senior Stuart Lampen-Crowell's third best finish in 25:16.38 counted for the top two scored finish times due to the Hokies running an incomplete team.
Junior Adam LaFemina also finished in the top five (fifth – 25:21.28) while redshirt junior Brent Coulter (10th – 25:45.88) was Mason's fourth runner among the top 10 finishers at the Oatlands Plantation.
The Patriots raced seven additional runners, three of which finished in the top 20 of the 49-man race – redshirth freshman Logan Miller (11th – 25:49.42), sophomore Grayson Morgan (14th – 25:57.30), sophomore Paul Adam (18th – 26:38.83), freshman Dustin Jutras (22th – 26:45.54), redshirt freshman Marcus Hatchett (28th – 27:19.49), sophomore Jonathan Schloth (30th – 27:22.20) and sophomore David Strickland (32nd – 27:32.18).
The teams will return to training until Friday, Oct. 16, when they will participate in the Wake Forest Invitational in Kernersville, N.C.
