Fairfax- The Patriots will be traveling back to Fairfax after competing in the NCAA SE Regionals. The men's team finished 17th out of 40 teams while the women's team placed 26th out of 32 teams.
Wesley Bond crossed the finish line in 22nd (29:37.2) from 220+ runners and he earned himself the first All-Region honoree for GMU men's cross country since 2015.
Mason Love finished in 59th with a time of 30:24.3,
Gavin Mogck finished in 115th with a time of 31:37.3, and to complete the first five to score for George Mason was
Alex DeRoussell (31:42.6) and
Kai Muniz (32:25.1).
"Great way to cap off the season", said Coach Gerard. "Wes, Mason, and Kate especially performed well, which is a direct reflection of their experience at this level. For many of the others, this was their first time at an NCAA Regional and by and large we were pleased with their races. For Wes, it's an awesome result. He's our first men's All-Region honoree since 2015 so that is a fantastic way to cap his season".
Kate O'Neill was the leader once again for George Mason placing 39th out of 220+ runners. Kate has been instrumental for Mason's success together with Yashika who may be done with cross country but will be back for the track and field season.
Nourene Nabbus finished in 131st with a time of 22:26.2,
Katryna Aulenbach placed 163rd with a time of 22:59.8. The newcomers,
Sarah Clark (23:09.2) and
Aylin Yirmibesoglu (23:49.1) completed the first five to finish for the Patriots.
"Although it's sort of complicated to untangle the results of the NCAA regional championships, the way I see it, this was a big improvement from the A10 meet.", said Coach Tony. "Once again, Kate did a tremendous job leading us up front, and a Top 40 finish (39th) and a sub-21:00 performance is a very good result for her, two things we'd been keying on.
Katryna Aulenbach was also critical today, as she moved up lots of places and covered some of our runners who ran into a bit of trouble in the middle there. While I am very proud of what we did today, and this season, we had to rely heavily on the freshmen and sophomores, who now become sophomores and juniors, and I am eager to add some experience into the arsenal looking ahead. And of course, a huge debt of gratitude goes to Kate and Yashika, our two seniors today. Luckily, in our sport, we don't have to wait long to compete again, and after some rest and reset, I'm sure this group will have some ennobling goals on the track"!
