Earlysville, Va. – George Mason University's men's cross country team finished in the prestigious 12^th place at the competitive Southeast Regional Championships which took place at Panorama Farms on Friday, while the women's team finished 25^th.

Atlantic 10 Conference individual champion Steven Flynn finished the 10-kilometer race with the 15^th best time – 29:54.8 – to put the first of Mason's 366 points on the board, which placed the Patriots one position higher in the team standings than last year. This is also the team's best finish in the championship in its Atlantic 10 Conference era. The Patriots were 23 points away from a place in the top 10 but also became the fastest A-10 team in the race, leaving Davidson 16 points and one position behind.

“I was really pleased today,” Head Coach of the men's team Andrew Gerard said. “Obviously Flynn did a tremendous job - that's the highest placing men's athlete we've ever had at the NCAA Regional in perhaps the deepest region in the country.

“The rest of the men executed much, much better today as well, keeping their wits about them and really closing well,” he added. “We dropped more than 30 points in the last 2k and closed very well. That was our best team race of the season on our biggest stage, which is what we always strive for.”

Virginia Tech's Thomas Curtin set the pace for the other 222 runners by finishing first overall with a time of 29:07.9, but he was the team's only top-20 finisher, which left the Hokies in sixth place. The trophy went to a more consistent Louisville side which had two top-10 and four top-20 finishers for a total of 77 points. Host Virginia with three top-20 finishers and 96 points and Eastern Kentucky with two top-10 finishes and 113 points completed the top trio, followed by Furman (133 points) and NC State (148 points).

Gerard entered six runners in the race in addition to Flynn, three of whom finished in the top 100 – redshirt senior Stuar Lampen-Crowell (65^th – 31:17.1), the A-10 Rookie of the Year Grayson Morgan (69^th – 31:19.9) and junior Adam LaFemina (96^th – 31:51.2). Redshirt freshmen Logan Miller (129^th – 32:25.2) and Paul Adam (148^th – 32:50.7), along with redshirt junior Brent Coulter (150^th – 32:52.0) completed Mason's participation in the men's race.

Sophomore Bailey Kolonich paced the Patriots in the the 6-kilometer women's race, finishing 73^rd with a time of 22:38.6. She was the only one who recorded a top-100 finish for the Patriots, who completed the race with 654 points. Freshman Ciara Donohue continued establishing herself as one of Mason's impact runners and finished second for Mason (130^th – 23:21.7) Redshirt senior Jennifer Nakamura (143^rd – 23:25.4) and senior Victoria Doss (157^th – 23:49.2) followed the front two, while freshmen Carolyn Conley (174^th – 24:07.5) and Caitlin Kelly (184^th – 24:24.0), as well as transfer sophomore Rachel Lewis (224^th – 26:20.7), competed in their first race of such high caliber for Mason.

Host Virginia completely dominated the women's race, finishing with five runners between sixth and 14^th place and accumulating 53 points. The Wolfpack from NC State was the only other team to finish with fewer than 100 finish points (74 points) thanks to four top-20 finishes. North Carolina (100 points), William & Mary (187 points) and Eastern Kentucky (241 points) completed the top five in the 33-team race. Coastal Carolina's Letitia Saayman claimed the first place individually with a time of 20:25.1, but her team finished 17^th.