BRONX, N.Y. – The George Mason men's and women's cross country teams turned in strong performances Friday morning at the IC4A/ECAC Championships at historic Van Courtlandt Park in New York City.
Senior Ella Semple led the way once again for the Patriots, placing 4th overall in the Women's 6K with a time of 20:39.0. Semple's top-five finish capped another impressive outing for the Mason standout, who continues to pace the women's team through the fall campaign. Behind her, the Patriots tallied 248 points to secure a 7th place for the team polls in a deep and competitive field.
On the men's side, senior Lloyd Sheppard-Brown continued his strong form, finishing 6th overall in the Men's 8K with a time of 24:32.3. The Patriots' men totaled 207 points to place 9th overall, marking another consistent performance heading into the championship portion of the season.
Associate Head Coach Tony Mihalich praised the women's team for their growth and resilience since their last outing.
"The women identified lots of kinks at Paul Short and showed up to ECAC's far more prepared and competitive," said Mihalich. "I honestly think they realized that embracing the 'hard,' or embracing the 'challenge,' makes it much more fun. It's almost like the harder you race, the easier it is to race. That's the type of advancement I like seeing, especially as we can finally turn our attention to the championship portion of the season. I'll look at the stats and find the kinks from today (still far from flawless), but today was a useful step as we look to get better and better."
Head Coach Andrew Gerard echoed those sentiments, emphasizing that the meet provided valuable insight as the Patriots gear up for the postseason.
"For the men, we continue to work to put the pieces together heading into the championship season in two weeks," said Gerard. "We had a couple very specific things we wanted to work on, and this meet gave us good data to carry forward into A-10's. Our sport is unique in that the regular season isn't particularly consequential except as a tool to prepare for the championship meets — if you race well at the championships, 'all is forgiven' from these preparatory meets, so to speak, and that's what we're working towards."
The meet marked George Mason's final regular-season competition before the Atlantic 10 Championships, set for October 31st.
Fans can follow the Patriots' postseason journey at GoMason.com and on social media via X.
