September 27, 2008

RAMS CONTINUE TO MAKE STRIDES WITH WIN AT GREENSBORO
Six runners turn in personal bests

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Ethan Tussing, the Virginia Commonwealth University assistant coach who handles the women’s cross country team, takes terrific pride in developing runners.

That explains why he was so happy after the Rams’ victorious showing in the 25th annual Greensboro Cross Country Invitational. Finishing first as a team was a terrific reward for a great day of running. Even better perhaps is the fact that six of the Rams’ seven runners turned in personal bests.

“We had a great day of running,” Tussing said. “A great, great day.”

VCU outpaced Concord and North Carolina Central to win the 5-kilometer event at Hagen Stone Park. Runner-up Concord finished 35 points behind the Rams.

Freshman Heather DelaCruz finished fifth overall to top Rams’ runners with a time of 19 minutes, 41.9 seconds. That’s an improvement of 1:17 over her previous best.

Senior Samantha Hendel finished sixth in 19:52.8, an improvement of a whopping 1:57 over her previous best. Sophomore Genova Washington was third in 20:15.8, which was a personal recorde by 54 seconds.

The day’s biggest improvement was by Nicole Walters, who finished 13th in 20:36.5, a showing that was 3:02 better than her previous mark.

Freshman Aubree Washington (23rd in 21:16.8) improved by 23 seconds. Christina Costello (35th in 21:51.5) improved by three seconds. Jennifer Dominguez finished 37th in 21:56.4.

Tussing noted the average improvement for the Rams’ top five runners from last year to this year is more than 90 seconds (90.6).

“We had a bunch of personal bests at a meet last year but never this many,” Tussing said. “It was huge. We’re making great progress and I think we’re in great position to make our goals for the conference meet come true.”

The Colonial Athletic Association meet is scheduled for Nov. 1 in Manassas. The Rams have two more meets scheduled before the conference championships, including one next Saturday at George Mason University.