Stewart, Strock, Mundell Lead Dukes at Pre-Nationals

Saturday, October 17

Louisville, KY

8 a.m.

James Madison University

Pre-Nationals

10/17/2015 11:08:00 AM | Cross Country

Red Race Results | Open Race Results

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senior Kathleen Stewart led the way for the James Madison cross country team at the 2015 Pre-Nationals meet on Saturday morning at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park.

Stewart completed the six-kilometer course with a time of 21:03.9 to place 88th (84th scoring) in women's "Red Race," made up of 301 competitors. The race also featured eight teams ranked nationally and five other programs receiving votes.

Seconds behind was junior Carol Strock, who earned 116th-place finish (112th scoring), with a time of 21:13.3. Junior Tessa Mundell crossed the line seven seconds later to take 133rd (129th) with her time of 21:20.3.

JMU's top trio of Stewart, Strock and Mundell has embodied the team's top-three finishes for the second race in a row following 10th, 17th and 28th place finishes, respectively, at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pa. two weeks ago.

Rounding out the Dukes' scoring were sophomore Erica Gray and freshman Olivia Viparina, who ran the 6K in 21:51.5 and 22:01.2 for 220th (216th scoring) and 240th (236th) place finishes.

At 777 points, Madison placed 35th as a team in the 45-team field. "There were no bad teams in this race," head coach Dave Rinker said. "Every team here is ranked in the top-10 of their region so we knew we'd be challenging ourselves."

Freshman Erica Jackson also competed in the race, completing the course with a time of 23:45.6.

Colorado's Erin Clark took home the individual title with a time of 20:00.5 while Michigan earned the gold in the team standings with 131 points.

Four more JMU runners participated in the women's 6K "Open Race" later in the day. Freshman Jackie O'Shea and junior Jenna Flickinger completed the race with an identical time of 23:04.1 to place 68th and 69th in the 126-runner field. Sophomores Nora Raher (75th) and Angelique DeMeo (96th) also ran, earning respective times of 23:09.5 and 23:39.1.

COACH'S QUOTE
"Overall, I thought we ran well," Rinker said. "Most of the team got pinched in about 300 meters into the race and were forced to slow down considerably, but we fought back well from that."

PHOTO OF THE DAY
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LOOKING AHEAD
The Dukes head to Charleston, S.C., in two weeks (Oct. 31) for the Colonial Athletic Association Championships to be held at Laurel Hills. In last year's CAA Championship meet, JMU placed third overall after Stewart and Mundell earned top-10 individual finishes to garner All-CAA accolades.