Goff Leads JMU with Third-Place Finish at Longwood

Friday, September 19

Farmville, Va.

4:45 p.m.

James Madison University

Longwood/Adidas Invitational

9/19/2014 11:00:00 PM | Cross Country

Meet Results

FARMVILLE, Va. – Freshman Nicole Goff (Yorktown, Va./Grafton) paced the James Madison cross country team with a third-place finish at the Longwood/adidas Invitational on Friday at the Longwood University Golf Course.

Goff completed the 5,000-meter course in 19:22, which was only six seconds off the lead pace of VCU's Emily Dyke, who won the race in 19:16. Her time was also faster than the top-5 runners from Richmond, which won the race after claiming fourth through eighth in the race.

"While we did not take everyone on the team, the group we took ran a very competitive race," head coach Dave Rinker said. "I thought that Nicole ran a very smart, tough race. Richmond packed up at the front and pushed the pace through most of the race, but Nicole was patient and didn't let them get away. In the last 800, the VCU women took the lead and while she couldn't get past them, they never pulled away. The rest followed the race plan that we put together and competed very hard."

Senior Morgan Sheaffer (New Bloomfield, Pa./West Perry) was the second Duke to cross the finish line as she placed 12th with a time of 20:15. Running back-to-back in 16th and 17th places were senior Kristen Landry (Boonton Township, N.J./Mountain Lakes) and sophomore Ally Bodmer (Manassas, Va./Forest Park (Virginia Tech)) who completed the course in 20:41 and 20:49, respectively.

Rounding out the team's score was senior Kelsey Langton (Hamilton Square, N.J./Notre Dame HS), who clocked a time of 21:36, good for 22nd. Also on the course for Madison was junior Caroline Morris (Fredericksburg, Va./James Monroe) as she took 30th place in 22:39.

The Dukes took third out of four teams after compiling 66 points. The Spiders won the race with 30 points while the Rams took runner-up with 39 points. Following JMU in fourth was host Longwood, which finished with 105 points.

The Dukes will take next weekend off before returning to action Saturday, Oct. 4 at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa.

Team Results:
Richmond – 30 points (4-5-6-7-8)
VCU – 39 points (1-2-9-13-14)
JMU – 66 points (3-12-15-16-20)
Longwood – 105 points (17-19-21-23-25)