LMU Cross Country Teams Run Strong On Familiar Ground

HUNTSVILLE, AL – The Lincoln Memorial University men’s and women’s cross country teams finished 4^th and 7^th respectively on Saturday at the Fleet Feet Sports/Earl Jacoby Memorial Invitational hosted by the University of Alabama-Huntsville in Huntsville, Alabama.

Although this was the first time LMU has participated in this specific meet, LMU has competed many times against the University of Alabama-Huntsville when the two were each members of the Gulf South Conference.

The Railsplitters placed 4^th among the 11 men’s teams participating in the 8K race.  Lincoln Memorial finished behind host team Alabama-Huntsville (1^st), the University of Evansville (2^nd) and Columbus State University who placed 3^rd.  Rounding out the field of 11 teams were Alabama State (5^th), Morehouse College (6^th), Sewanee (7^th), North Georgia (8^th), North Alabama (9^th), Northwest Shoals Community College (10^th) and South Union State Community College who finished 11^th.

Jeremy Donahue ran near the front of the pack to finish 5th overall with a time of 27:48.  Ted Johnson placed 13^th with a time of 28:17, while teammate Mark Paulson was 18^th with a 28:30.  Josh Armentrout narrowly missed being in the top-25 when he came in 31^st with a time of 28:57 and teammates David Mullins (39^th – 29:17), Kyle Henderson (43^rd – 29:28) and Andras Pauko (54^th – 31:41) all finished closely behind.

The Lincoln Memorial women finished 7^th among the 16 teams participating.  Ahead of the Lady Railsplitters were Alabama-Huntsville (1^st), the University of Evansville (2^nd), Columbus State (3^rd), Augusta State (4^th), North Alabama (5^th) and Albany State in 6^th.  Lincoln Memorial surpassed Sewanee (8^th), Alabama State (9^th), Montevallo (10^th), North Georgia (11^th), Bevill State (12^th), Gadsden State Community College (13^th), Alabama A&M (14^th), South Union State Community College (15^th) and Miles College in 16^th place.

For the first time since joining the Lady Railsplitters, Kathleen Rollett led the LMU attack, finishing the 5K race in 30^th place with a time of 21:28.  Emily Burke who is normally the Lady Railsplitter top finisher was 32^nd with a time of 21:32, while Michelle Ratliff placed 33^rd in 21:33 as LMU’s top three qualifiers.  The remainder of the Lady Railsplitters went as follows, Jennifer Ely (52^nd – 22:37), Deidre Ratliff (58^th – 23:03), Jessica Brandes (65^th – 23:28) and Lindsay Parda (78^th – 25:24).

Next weekend the LMU cross country teams travel to Wingate, North Carolina for the Wingate Invitational.  The meet will be significant for both teams in that they will be competing against many teams from the South Atlantic Conference and their NCAA region.  This should give both teams some idea of what kind of effort they will have to give in their post season meets.