CLINTON, Miss. - For the first time since the 2007 season, the Tulane cross country program brought home a team title. The women's squad won the Watson Ford Invitational on Friday afternoon with a score of 44 points, edging Southern Miss by two points, to claim the team crown. The men's squad finished fourth out of nine Division I squads on the course at Choctaw Trails. "I can't remember the last time that this team won a meet. This is a great step forward for our program," said head coach Eric Peterson. "Rebecca and Julia didn't run today because we wanted to get them a challenging week of workouts heading into the Chile Pepper. Another reason for that was to see what the rest of our group had to offer and what individuals were going to step forward and fight for the team as we move towards the postseason." Katherine Crabtree posted the top individual finish for the Olive and Blue with a fifth place finish in a time of 23:27.92. Fellow sophomore Emmi Aguillard followed in seventh place and senior Peggy Keplinger placed ninth to get the Green Wave off to a fast start. "Katherine did a great job of leading our team today," said Peterson. "Our top five really stepped forward today and it is just great to win. It was great to see the look in the eyes of these girls and their hard work really paid off today."
Southern Miss, however had the first three runners across the finish line and sat in prime position to win the meet, but the #4 and #5 runners for Tulane crossed the finish line well before the Eagles could place another runner to give them the team title. Johanna Gretschel finished in 11th place and freshman Callie Turlington was a scoring runner for the first time in her career with a 12th place showing.
In the team portion of the meet, the Watson Ford Invitational was scored as two separate meets. The Division I school competing in one and the non-Division I schools in the other. The Green Wave won the competition with 44 points and Southern Miss was second with 46. Alabama State (76), Louisiana-Monroe (115) and Mississippi Valley State (127) rounded out the top five. For the fourth straight week, the men's team had a different #1 finisher. JuniorMax Miller paced the squad with a near career-best time of 27:26.29 to place 11th. Miller missed his career mark by just 15 seconds and was followed byJordan Vance in 14th place. "Max Miller may have run the best cross country race of his life on a very challenging course," said Peterson. "He was very close to a career-best and he really pushed the guys who were behind him. All of the guys really competed today. Ryan Rigali also had a great day and he is starting to figure out the distance and the pace at the college level." Rigali placed 17th overall and was the third Tulane runner across the finish line, while Mike Mainguy placed 19th and Phil Scruggs rounded out the scoring with a 27th place showing. Those efforts led the squad to a fourth place team finish with 88 points, behind meet champion Mississippi Valley State (54), runner-up Grambling (60) and Alabama State (69). Louisiana-Monroe rounded out the top-five teams with 92 points. The Green Wave will head to Fayetteville, Ark. next weekend to compete in the 2010 Chile Pepper Invitational hosted at the Razorback Cross Country Course at Agri Park. The men will race at 9:45 a.m. and the women will take to the course at 10:30 a.m. Men's Individual Results (8K)
11. Max Miller 27:26.29
14. Jordan Vance 27:59.99
17. Ryan Rigali 28:26.26
19. Mike Mainguy 28:28.49
27. Phil Scruggs 30:05.13
31. Jordon Holtzman 31:13.82
Women's Individual Results (6K)
5. Katherine Crabtree 23:27.92
7. Emmi Aguillard 23:53.09
9. Peggy Keplinger 24:28.31
11. Johanna Gretschel 24:29.83
12. Callie Turlington 24:31.77
21. Aimee Arceneaux 25:20.85
22. Colleen Loughlin 25:21.86
25. Caitlin Hornbeck 25:30.61
30. Tavie Abell 26:07.06
41. Amanda Savage 27:58.42
42. Cassie Campbell 28:02.19