ECU Women Finish Fourth, Men Seventh At AAC Championships

Saturday, October 31

Greenville, N.C.

10:00 AM

East Carolina University

American Athletic Conference Championships

ECU Women Finish Fourth, Men Seventh At AAC Championships

October 31, 2015 | Cross Country

Oct. 31, 2015

Men's Results (PDF) | Women's Results (PDF)

GRIMESLAND, N.C. -- Redshirt junior Jorge Montes and junior Caroline Reiser earned all-conference honors Saturday as East Carolina hosted the 2015 American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships at Lake Kristi in Grimesland, N.C.

The women's team produced a fourth-place showing in the 6K while the men took seventh in the 8K. Both finishes were an improvement on last year's conference championship meet results where the men were eighth and the women ninth in Tulsa, Okla.

Montes crossed the line in a time of 24:30.21 putting him in 14th place. The top 15 finishers earned all-conference nods and it was the second such accolade in as many years for the Mexico native. He shaved off more than minute from his time in last year's AAC championship. Reiser also turned in a personal-best 6K time of 21:09.16, topping her previous best by nearly two minutes. The all-conference honor marked the first in her three seasons at ECU.

Senior Brather Cline finished second for the Pirate men in 29th place with a time of 24:58.96 while junior Pol Solanelles checked in at 31st overall in a time of 25:03.37. Both runners eclipsed their times from a year ago.

As for the women, freshman Grace Sullivan continued a strong debut season with a 27th-place result (21:55.04). Senior Shewit Weldense finished virtually even with Sullivan as she took 28th place in a time of 21:55.66.

Tulsa produced four of the top five finishers to claim its second consecutive championship. Senior Marc Scott defeated the field for the second-straight year to earn his second men's individual title. Scott crossed the finish line at 23:28.32, 10-plus seconds ahead of runner-up and teammate Nejamin Preisner (23:39.82). Luke Traynor followed in third at 23:42.11 and Adam Roderique tripped the timer with a fifth place time of 23.55.09.

The Golden Hurricane finished the championship with a score of 22 points. UConn was the runner-up with 96 points, followed by Houston (101), Temple (110) and Cincinnati (119) to round out the top five.

On the women's side, Tulsa had three runners in the top 10 en route to its second consecutive conference title. Senior Rachel Baptista led the way for the Golden Hurricane with a third-place time of 20:30.82. Junior Stacie Taylor crossed the finish line in fifth at 20:40.43, followed by sophomore Nicole Lee in sixth at 20:44.74. Senior Blanca Fernandez of Temple won the women's individual title with a time of 20:06.00. UConn's Emily Durgin, the 2014 women's conference champion, finished in the runner-up position with a time of 20:11.81.

Tulsa produced 46 points to lead the women's final standings. SMU placed second with 68 points, followed by UConn (73), ECU (148) and USF (162).

East Carolina returns to action Nov. 7 at the Three Stripe Invitational in Cary, N.C.

Head Coach Dan Lee on ECU's Performance
"It was great to run in front of a home crowd at Parker Overton's Lake Kristi course and have our best day. It's nice when the stars align like that. Overton and his crew did an amazing job cleaning and shaping every corner of the course to make for a great Championship environment. It's a privilege to run on such a nice course.

"The men's and women's teams really stepped up to the challenge of running to their capabilities and erasing the memories of last year's debacle. The team did so with 12 personal bests including our top five for both the men's and women's teams. This year's No. 5 runners from both teams equaled their performance of last year's No.3 runner at the AAC Championships so we are significantly better.

"Physically, we were less than 100% going to the line. We had to get through a number of injuries throughout the season and a lot of late season sicknesses before today. Today, everyone was running for more than themselves. It's a testament to the power of positive attitudes, good teammates, good trainers and PIRATE PRIDE! I couldn't be more proud of them. I'm looking forward to a couple easy days then taking on the next challenge. The team has showed me they are up to facing the challenges."