September 21, 2009
RedStorm open season with strong effort at Cedarville
Cedarville, Oh. --- The 2009 season finally got underway for the Rio Grande RedStorm men's and women's cross country teams on Saturday at the Friendship Invitational held at Cedarville University. Both men's and women's team ran against stacked fields and Rio Grande did more than hold its own as the men carved out a 3rd place finish and women finished 8th.
On the women's side, Rio Grande totaled 216 points in finishing 8th out of 16 teams.
Junior Cassie Mattia (West Chester, OH), over from the track team and running her first collegiate cross country race, was a pleasant surprise, pacing the RedStorm. Mattia finished 40th overall and timed out the 3.1-mile course in 20:14.
Sophomore Kayla Renner (Galloway, OH) ran 42nd overall with a 20:16. Junior Brooke Wampler (Grove City, OH) was 47th (20:26) and senior Stacey Arnett (Laurelville, OH) was 48th (20:28).
Freshman Amy Lower (Lancaster, OH) had a good first showing at the college level as she crossed the finish line 84th overall with a time of 21:14. Sophomore Molly
Roark (South Webster, OH) and freshman Holly Haines (McConnellsville, OH) rounded out the top seven. Roark was 108th (22:13) and Haines finished 139th (23:36).
Sophomore Danielle Stockham (London, OH) finished 141st overall with a time of
23:50.
There were 181 runners in the women's race.
Ashland won the women's event with 39 points, followed by NAIA No. 2 Cedarville (64) and NAIA No. 23 Shawnee State (110).
NCAA Division I teams, Wright State, 6th (156) and Cleveland State, 7th (159) also
made up the field.
Rio did manage to knock off the two Mid-South Conference teams at the meet, Cumberlands, 9th (250) and Campbellsville, 10th (289).
"The ladies all ran together well, we had a nice pack and again for the first time we will definitely take it," Rio Grande head coach Bob Willey said.
Next up, Rio Grande will host the 39th annual Rio Invitational at the Stanley Evans
Course on September 26. The women's race will begin the event at 10 a.m.
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