The Virginia men's and women's cross country teams began their season over the weekend by hosting the Lou Onesty Invitational.
The women placed first out of 11 teams while the men -- whose top seven runners did not run Saturday -- finished second behind Liberty.
"I was really pleased with our women's team," coach Jason Dunn said. "We didn't line up all of our best men, but we ran all of our women and I was very impressed with all of them and I felt that the guys that did run ran well also."
Emily Harrison led the charge for the women's squad, finishing second in the meet with a time of 17:43.80. Three other Cavaliers posted top-10 finishes; Katie Read finished fourth with a time of 17:49.80, Kara Scanlin finished seventh with a time of 18:06.60, and Laura Hodges finished 10th with a time of 18:36.60
"I felt like the women did a great job as a team," Dunn said. "A number of them achieved their personal bests on this course" on Saturday.
Senior Andrew Dumm also complimented the women's team.
"It's really exciting to see the women have a good and deep team this year," Dumm said. "It's going to be great traveling with them. We're going to look for them to score really well in the ACCs and return to nationals with us."
Andrew Jesien placed the highest for the men's team, finishing fifth with a time of 25:17.20. The other top finishers for the Cavaliers were Taylor Smith who finished 15th with a time of 25:32.30 and James Erickson who finished 18th with a time of 25:56.30. Josh McDougal of Liberty won the men's meet with a time of 24:14.50.
Dunn, who wanted to give the top runners on the Cavaliers some rest, still had hopes that the Cavaliers who did run would give a solid performance.
"I felt like the guys -- because their race distance is longer -- could probably stand to have one less race under their belt heading towards nationals," Dunn said. "Whoever we put out on the course, we expect good results."
The meet also provided the new men's runners with a chance to experience a collegiate cross-country race for the first time on their home field.
"I think it helps make things easier for the younger athletes running their first meet at home," Dunn said. "It makes the adjustment for them a little bit easier; especially heading towards ACCs, which are at home this year."
It was important for both squads to perform well in this meet because the next meet -- the Roy Girak Invitational in Minneapolis -- will be very important for the Cavaliers. It is the first weekend that results will count toward invitations to the National Championships.
"We haven't been to this meet in about five years," Dunn said. "Every year they have great competition up there. The challenges are going to be in the quality of teams coming from across the country."
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