The Virginia cross-country teams turned in strong early-season performances at the Lou Onesty Invitational Saturday at Panorama Farms.
The men's team finished second overall as Duke edged out the Cavs 35-55, though Virginia sophomore Andy Biladeau claimed the individual title by 12 seconds against High Point junior Tamas Kovacs. Virginia senior Ryan Foster checked in at seventh overall,?while junior Mike Hagos and freshman Trey Miller ran within 12 seconds of each other to place 18th and 24th overall. Junior James Erickson (32nd) led a pack of Virginia runners who rounded out the final three scoring places, along with freshman Alex Bowman (33rd) and sophomore Chris Clark (34th).
Other non-scoring runners for the Cavaliers were senior Alec Lorenzoni (35th), freshman Graham Tribble (40th), junior Kevin Tschirhart (42nd) and junior Will Williams (55th). Two surprise performances came from freshman runners Emil Heineking and Ryan Collins, who ran unattached and finished fourth and 10th, respectively. Virginia coach Jason Dunn ran the runners unattached to give himself more time to decide whether to dress or redshirt them for this year.
"It was a pleasant surprise," Dunn said, "If they had run with our team, we would have won the meet. We'll make a decision whether to redshirt them or not over the next three weeks, before our next meet at Minnesota."
On the women's side, junior Emily Harrison showed why she was an all-American last year and has qualified for nationals the past three years.
"I was definitely pleased with my performance," Harrison said. "I surprised myself a little bit, but not much. It was great to have a good race in such hot conditions."
Harrison won the individual title by a comfortable 50-second margin over William & Mary senior Emily Gousen.
"I was expecting her to lead the team and she did," Dunn said, "She ran almost 30 seconds faster than she did in the same event last year."
Sophomore Lauretta Dezubay finished third overall, and freshman Stephanie Garcia was fourth. Also in the top 10 was sophomore Sara Casscells, who finished ninth. Sophomore Susan Brooks finished 13th, and freshman Samantha Stafford finished 15th. Non-scoring finishers for Virginia included junior Jen Dolson (16th), sophomore Diana Burk (22nd), freshman Megan Durkee (33rd) and freshman Erin Klein (36th). Supported by these strong performances, the Cavaliers were able to finish first in the team standings, edging William & Mary by seven points.
Virginia won the meet even without all-American senior Kara Scanlin, who sat out the meet.
Other teams in the field included High Point, Radford, Christopher Newport, Wake Forest, VCU and Mars Hill.
Dunn said the meet was a strong beginning for the team, which will next compete at the Roy Griak Invitational Sept. 29 at the University of Minnesota.
"In general, it was a good start for both teams," Dunn said. "It's an early season meet for us, so I'm more concerned with the process than the outcome. We didn't run all of our top runners so they would be fresh for later races. Each meet gets more and more important as the season goes on, unlike football where you have to win every game to get to the national championship. We'll be lining up a much better-prepared and complete group for the next meet."
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