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Roberts, Townsend Lead Cross Country At Pre-National Invitational

Oct. 19, 2013

Men’s Results  | Women’s Results  | Berry Invite Men Results | Berry Invite Women Results

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Senior Shawn Roberts and junior Katie Townsend finished first for the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams Saturday at the Pre-National Invitational hosted by Indiana State at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, which will play host to the NCAA Championship meet on Nov. 23.

In their final tune-up before the ACC Championships Nov. 1, the Georgia Tech men’s team placed 32nd of 52 teams and the women’s team took 11th of 35 teams.

No. 2 Colorado won the men’s 8K with 90 points and an average time of 23:49, followed by No. 4 Oregon (113; 23:51) and No. 12 Iona (126; 23:55). The Jackets averaged a time of 25:01 and placed 32 of 52 teams among top competition in the nation, including Oklahoma State and Colorado, currently ranked 1-2 nationally, along with Oregon (4), Tulsa (9), Princeton (10), Indiana (12), Iona (18), Boise State (19), Villanova (23), Georgetown (24) and Stanford (29).

Roberts led the Georgia Tech men with a 99th-place finish out of 359 total runners and a time of 24:35.00. Junior Brandon Lasater followed in 111th in a time of 24:41.85, and junior Jeremy Greenwald (135th; 24:55.22), senior Alec Clifford (174th; 25:04.25) and freshman Sidney Speir (297th; 25:53.18) rounded out Tech’s top five.

California won the women’s 6K meet with 105 points and an average time of 21:28, followed by Virginia Tech (107; 21:33) and Xavier (184; 21:51). The Jackets averaged a time of 22:30 and placed 11th of 35 teams.

Townsend finished first for Tech in every meet this season, placing 53rd of 227 runners with a time of 22:05.80. The next three Jackets finished within four places of each other in junior Allison Brackin (81st; 22:30.88), freshman Hayley Keady (83rd, 22:33.10) and junior Kelly Meyer (87th, 22:37.32). Freshman Melissa Fairey (104th; 22:47.34) completed Tech’s top five finishers.

A second tier of Yellow Jackets competed at the Berry Invitational in Rome, Ga. The Georgia Tech men took third of 22 teams and the women placed second of 21 teams.

Chance Eldredge finished first for the Tech men in the 8K in seventh place out of 207 runners with a time of 25:46.58. Billy Koskiewicz followed right after in eighth with a time of 25:57.86. Austin Veith rounded out Tech’s top-three finishers in 20th place in a time of 26:52.55.

Tennessee Wesleyan won the men’s race with 38 points, followed by Lee (Tenn.) with 59 points and Georgia Tech with 78 points.

The women were paced by Morgan Jackson’s third-place finish of 178 runners and a 5K time of 22:37.17. Maria Boff and Megan Breitbach finished sixth (22:53.17) and seventh (22:57.39), respectively to make up Tech’s top-three finishers.

Georgia (34 points), Georgia Tech (51) and Birmingham-Southern (130) were the top three teams in the women’s race.

The Jackets are back in action Nov. 1 at the ACC Championships hosted by Wake Forest at Beeson Park, Kernersville, N.C. Action begins at 10 a.m. ET.

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