BALANCED EFFORT LEAD RAMS TO SECOND-PLACE SHOWING AT SPIDER OPEN
All seven runners finish within 10 spots of each other
Full Results

RICHMOND, Va. – It was a balanced team effort for the Virginia Commonwealth University women’s cross country squad as all seven runners placed within 10 spots to capture second-place at the Spider Alumni Open, hosted by the University of Richmond.

“We came out and ran well for as a team today,” Assistant Coach Ethan Tussing said. “Last year at this meet we only had three girls under 13:10 and this year we had four. I believe the new course was a little slower than last year’s with a number of competitors running about 10 to 20 seconds slower than they did the previous season.”

Junior Melissa Douglass (Spotsylvania, Va.) led the Black and Gold runners with a 14th-place showing with a time of 12:39.50.

Freshman Heather DelaCruz (Williamsburg, Va.) was at the top of a quartet of VCU runners in 16th place with a time of 12:50.40. Samantha Hendel (Rockville Centre, N.Y.), Nicole Walters (Orange, Va.), Genova Washington (Woodbridge, Va.) and Aubree Washington (Woodbridge, Va.) finished in 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th place respectively.

“We don’t ever expect to come out and wow anyone at this meet as we are a slow starting team that looks to build towards the end of the cross country and on into the track season,” Tussing said. “As we progress towards where we want to be at the conference meet we will definitely look for someone to make an aggressive move and step up in to that crucial final scoring position.”

The Black and Gold will be back in action next weekend as they travel to Blacksburg, Va. to compete in the Virginia Tech Relays on Friday evening. Start time for the meet is 5 p.m.