Tulane University
Sundodger Cross Country Invitational
Cross Country Posts 6 Lifetime-Best Marks At Sundodger Invite
Sep 19, 2015 | Cross Country
SEATTLE - Six Green Wave student-athletes posted lifetime-best marks as the Tulane University cross country team participated in the 24th Annual Sundodger Cross Country Invitational on Saturday afternoon at West Seattle's Lincoln Park.
Sophomores Moses Aloiloi and Emma Newton led the respective Green Wave units with times of 24:35.34 in the and a 21:35.14, respectively. Aloiloi finished 10th overall in the 8K race while Newton's time was good for the No. 21 spot in the women's 6K run, and both were career-best marks. The men's team finished fourth among the five teams running on Saturday while the women came in eighth.
"The men had many bright spots today in the way they performed as a team," Tulane head coach Eric Peterson said. "Once again, we were led by the strength and consistency with Moses Aloiloi running perhaps as well as he ever has. Every one of them ran very aggressively and put themselves into a position through about six kilometers where it looked as if we were going to have as good of a team performance as we've had in years…but we just weren't able to hang on to it.
"A couple of the guys came out too fast and then paid for it. When that happens, it softens up our team performance which is unfortunate because we really did have a lot of very strong individual performances."
Freshman Emmanuel Rotich, who made his collegiate debut on Saturday, finished second to Aloiloi for the Green Wave with a 25:10.80 to come in 18th overall. Seniors Jack White (25:35.57, 31st) and Nicholas Meloro (26:29.52, 49th joined Aloiloi with lifetime-best marks and freshman Pierce Hill rounded out the Tulane scores with a 25:58.68 to come in 37th.
Washington State took home the men's team title with 24 points, 10 better than host Washington. Seattle was third with 113 and Portland State rounded out the field with 151 points to finish sixth.
"I've got mixed emotions about the [women's] results," Peterson added. "Obviously, I'm very pleased with the individual results from Emma Newton, Lauren Bartels and Mikayla Sonneborn. I remain concerned about the challenge and the struggle that we're having trying to shore up the back end of our team and have stronger performances in our final two scoring spots.
"I know that the team is very young and inexperienced, but we need to find an answer and some solutions. We're going to work hard moving forward at getting that done. Getting Lauren Bartels back and having her run the way that she did today is just a wonderful thing for our team. For Emma and Lauren to ran the way that they did coming off of injuries they suffered last year is really remarkable, and it's a great sign for the future success of our team."
Bartels, a sophomore, and senior Mikayla Sonneborn joined Newton on the women's side with lifetime-best performances with respective times of 21:41.58 to finish 24th and 22:24.60 to finish 32nd. Freshman Sarah Marvin was next for Tulane (23:11.76, 64th), followed by redshirt-freshman Becca Blitt (23:57.57, 78th) and sophomore Emily-Kathryn Hoey (24:39.48, 84th).
Washington won the women's title with 17 points, followed by Washington State with 88, Nevada with 93 and Portland State with 130. Oregon State finished fifth (141), ahead of Seattle (156), Fresno State (163), the Green Wave (171) and Hawai'i (195).
The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Oct. 2, when they take part in the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. From there Tulane will run in the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, on Oct. 17 before competing in The American Athletic Conference Championship on Oct. 31 in Grimesland, North Carolina.
Players Mentioned
