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Sep 3, 2010
Men's and Women's Cross Country Victorious at Mount. St. Mary's Duals
Men's Team Results / Women's Team Results / Men's Individual Results / Women's Individual Results
The American University men's and women's cross country teams opened their 2010 seasons in a big way on Friday with both teams winning the Mount St. Mary's 5K Duals. Craig Brown placed first to lead the men's side while Octavia Rinehardt strode to a second-place finish for the women.
"We are very pleased with how our runners competed today," Head Coach Matt Centrowitz commented. "This was a slow course with a lot of turns and the heat played a factor but overall we turned in some very good times."
Brown set a new personal record en route to winning the men's race, crossing the finish line in 15:33.89. His time put him more than seven seconds ahead of Sam Boimov from UMBC who placed second in 15:41.09. Mark Leininger just missed his personal best with a time of 15:48.54 to take third place while Jeff Branigan (15:49.34) and Colin Eustis (15:51.45) placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Mark Allen ran to a ninth-place finish with a personal best time of 15:58.20, putting all five of American's scoring runners in the top-10.
Rinehardt opened the women's season with a second-place showing, finishing the race in 18:05.67. Erin Koch, who was competing in her first career cross country race, placed fourth in 19:04.01 while freshman Carly Birkhold (19:25.68) began her American career with a seventh-place finish. Fellow freshman Alexandra Tyburski took 12th with a time of 19:57.47 and classmate Leah Haake (21:27.04) rounded out the Eagles' scorers in 27th place.
The men went a perfect 5-0 in the dual-meet scoring format while the women finished the event 6-0. Other school's competing at the meet included Mount St. Mary's, George Mason, George Washington, St. Francis (Pa.) and UMBC.
The men's cross country team will return to action on Friday, September 10, at the UVA Lou Onesty Alumni Open. The women's team will be in action next on Saturday, September 18, when both teams compete at the Navy Invitational.
