Upperclassmen Stuart Lampen-Crowell and Adam LaFemina set the pace for George Mason University's men's cross country team and 30 other runners to help the Patriots win the JMU Invitational in the heavy rainy conditions at the course in New Market, Va. on Saturday morning.

Redshirt senior Lampen-Crowell finished first with a time of 25:49 and was followed by his junior teammate LaFemina (second - 25:57) for the first three of Mason's 18 finishing points, which were enough for the first place and helped the Patriots leave Atlantic 10 rival VCU – the only other Div. I participant in the men's 7.9-kilometer race – behind for a second straight weekend.  The Rams finished with 43 points, which placed them fourth overall behind Washington and Lee University (23) and University of Mary Washington (32). The standings was completed with Southern Virginia University, which finished fifth with 80 points.

"I was pleased with the overall performance today,” men's head coach Andrew Gerard said. “We worked very hard on Thursday so it was very good to see how controlled the guys were able to be today. We set up some specific groups to work together through the race and, by and large, they did that. The conditions were pretty miserable - sloppy, wet and heavy - so we weren't focused at all on time but simply executing out strategy today and that went very well."

Mason's strong performance was solidified by junior Steven Flynn's 25:55 finish, which however did not count toward the final standings because he ran the course unattached to the Patriots' eight-runner team. In fact, it was redshirt freshman duo Grayson Morgan (fourth – 26:32) and Dustin Jutras (sixth – 26:36) and junior Brent Coulter (10^th – 26:56) that rounded off Mason's top five. The remaining of the drenched Patriots were      redshirt freshman Paul Adam (15^th – 27:46), redshirt sophomore Marcus Hatchett (18^th - 28:09) and redshirt freshman Jonathan Schloth (24^th – 28:43).

 The women's team faced tough Div. I competition in Georgetown – the top team in the Mid-Atlantic region – and James Madison, No. 11 in the preseason Southeast region ranking, but handled itself well and finished third from nine teams in the 5.2-kilometer race. The first place went to Georgetown, while event host James Madison finished second. Sophomore Bailey Kolonich led the Patriots with 20:01.40, which was good for eighth overall finish. She was followed by redshirt senior Jennifer Nakamura (20:28.70), freshman Ciara Donohue (20:32.10) and senior Victoria Doss (20:33.90), who finished 15^th, 16^th and 17^th, respectively.

“We did a nice job of working as a unit today especially with Jenn, Ciara, and Victoria,” associate head coach Sita Ewell said. “We had some tough competition out there today and the conditions were not ideal but the ladies were still able to put up some good results.”