Men, Women's Cross Country Take Home Title at Nicholls Invite

Saturday, September 1

Thibodaux, La.

8 a.m.

Tulane University

Nicholls Cross Country Invitational

Men, Women's Cross Country Take Home Title at Nicholls Invite

Sep 1, 2018 | Cross Country

THIBODAUX – The Tulane cross country teams had a tremendous start to their season with the men and women taking first place and having individual winners at the Nicholls Cross Country Invitational on Saturday morning.

The Green Wave women were particularly impressive, taking five of the top eight scoring positions to score 24 points in the win on Nicholls Farm. On the men's side, Tulane had all five runners in the top 13 to finish with a winning 42 points. Two juniors shined brighests for Tulane as Mckenzie Melius and Carlos Zervigon were the Green Wave's individual winners.

Melius kicked off her junior in style, taking the overall win on the women's 4K course. She blew past the field, crossing the finish line in 15:42.04, an incredible 40 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

Classmate Mary Catherine Stovall was second among Tulane runners and third overall, finishing her race in 16:36.17. Sophomore Reid Belanger was fifth in 17:19.84, and her classmate Rachel Maue was eighth overall but seventh in scoring with a time of 17:46.68. Rounding out the Tulane scoring was junior Paige Fatland in 17:59.33 for ninth overall and eighth in scoring.

Also running for Tulane and putting up strong first showings were freshmen Nicole Phaneuf and Oneke Gwan. Phaneuf took 13th overall in 19:17.04 while Gwan was 15th in 19:35.73.

Tulane's women as a whole impressed, finishing with an average time of 17:04.81. That time was a full minute faster than the second-place Nicholls average time and seven minutes better than third place UNO's average time.

Like Melius for the women, Zervigon earned a comfortable win for the men on the 6K course. His time of 21:11.55 beat out UNO's second-place finisher by just shy of 20 full seconds.

Next in line for the Green Wave was Patrick Dougherty, making his cross country debut for the team. He came in seventh place overall in 22:08.89. Also making his debut, Tom Coe took 10th place for Tulane in 22:41.47, and senior Joshua Cheruyot was right behind him in 11th with a time of 22:55.06.

Senior Pierce Hill was the final Green Wave runner on the day, crossing the finish line 13th in 23:15.94.

As a whole, like the women, Tulane's men had an impressive average time of 22:26.58, 30 seconds faster than the average time of second-place Loyola-New Orleans and third-place UNO.

With the first meet of the season now complete, Tulane will turn its attention to the LSU Invitational. Those races will be held on September 15 in Baton Rouge.