Oct. 31, 2009
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OXFORD, Miss. – Vanderbilt’s women’s and men’s cross country teams completed the fall season at the 2009 SEC Cross Country Championships held at Ole Miss this morning. The Commodores women placed sixth overall and the men placed tenth.
The Commodores were led by freshman Jordan White, who placed 22nd overall, earning All-SEC freshman honors. Joining her on the All-SEC freshman team was Allie Scalf, who finished 13 seconds behind White in 30th place.
“Jordan White had a great effort leading the team,” said Vanderbilt head coach Steven Keith. “The plan was to get out in the +/- 30th position and then fight from there. That worked out well for us.”
The Commodore women’s team rounded out top 30 finishes with sophomore Louise Hannallah placing 27th with a time of 22:27.51 and junior Rita Jorgensen placing close behind at 28th with a time of 22:30.24. The Commodores also received solid efforts from junior Kristabel Doebel-Hickok (35th), freshman Kristen Findley (44th), sophomore Alexa Rogers (56th), senior Ellen Black (71st), and sophomore Erin McManus (96th).
The Commodores assistant coach Rhonda Riley noted, “I am extremely proud of how the women ran today. They looked very strong out there and ran with confidence. Everyone stepped up today and contributed to an excellent team finish.”
The women’s finish (6th at 142 pts) is the fifth best finish ever for a Vanderbilt squad over the 27-year history of the SEC women’s championship.
The men had 282 total points on the day, putting them just out of the reach of host Ole Miss, who placed ninth.
Sophomore Jenner Kizer finished 45th and led the men with a time of 26:42.42. Following close behind, with a time of 27:21.17 was freshman Chris Baker, who placed 59th.
Rounding out the effort for the men’s team were freshman Billy Malmed (67th), junior Bram Chisholm (73rd), sophomore Kyle Rewick (74th), senior Thomas Davis (77th), senior James Kasten (84th), sophomore Casey Howards (87th), freshman Tomas Salazar (88th), and freshman Joe Newman (89th).
“Good effort by the guys, especially Jenner White and Chris Baker,” stated Keith. “We wanted to get both Ole Miss and LSU, but came up a bit short. We ran a much better race than last year and did exceedingly well for a very young team.”
“We’re very proud of the whole team effort today and for the season as well,” noted Keith.
