Hoya Staff Writer Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Georgetown cross country opened up its 2006 campaign with a dominating performance at the Great Meadows Invitational at The Plains, Va., as the Hoyas swept the team and individual contests on both the men’s and women’s side. The men tallied an almost-perfect score of 18 points, as they placed their five runners in the top six places. Brendan Fennell of American broke up the Hoyas’ quest for a sweep of the top five spots by finishing third with a time of 21:52.57. The teams from American and Maryland finished second and third, as they respectively accumulated 42 and 64 points. Junior Justin Scheid led Georgetown’s effort with a winning time of 21:47.56 on the six-kilometer course. In his first cross country race as a Hoya, redshirt sophomore Levi Miller followed closely; he captured second place with a time of 21:47.79. “The guys ran a solid race,” Assistant Coach Pat Henner said. “Justin and [junior Michael] Banks showed that they’re ready to step it up this season.” The Georgetown trio of Banks, senior Andre Laboy and sophomore Mike Krisch rounded out the point-scorers with its respective finishes of fourth, fifth and sixth. They completed the contest with times of 21:52.57, 21:52.84 and 21:54.78. What makes the Hoyas’ win even more impressive is that many of Georgetown’s top runners did not compete. Sophomore Andrew Bumbalough, junior Dan Nunn, and seniors Matt Debole and Brian Dalpiaz are primed to lead the Hoyas this year but did not compete over the weekend. Bumbalough completed at the junior word championships last summer while Debole led the team at last year’s Big East championships. “Andrew, Matt, Brian and Dan will probably run next week,” Henner said. “We really view these early meets as glorified workouts and are just concerned with getting good training in early on.” On the women’s side, the Hoyas won with a score of 21 points, easily ahead of Maryland, which finished with 34 points. Liz Maloy began her senior campaign with a win, as she raced through the five kilometer course in 18:16.28. The duo of juniors Melissa Grelli and aggie Infeld finished in third and fourth, as the runners clocked times of 18:29.36 and 18:40.29, respectively. Sophomores Lise Ogrodnick and Kailin Collins completed the scoring with sixth- and seventh-place efforts, recording times of 18:48.32 and 18:59.30. The Hoyas compete next Saturday at the James Madison Invitational.