Oct. 13, 2007

Meet Results

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The NCAA Southeast Region No. 11 Richmond women's cross country team placed eighth while the No. 13 men placed ninth at the 19th-annual Chile Pepper Festival Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark. In a loaded field of over 40 college teams the Spider women were led by Kylee Schuler, who placed 19th running 21:43.7 on the 6K race, while the men were led by Matt Llano who placed 25th in 31:07.6 for the 10K race. Of the 259 collegiate runners, the Spiders women finished three runners in the top 35.

"Our top three ran very well today," head women's coach Lori Taylor said. "Kylee (Schuler), Amy (Van Alstine) and Nicol (Traynor) really went after it and led our team. We know there is room for improvement among our team and getting a couple of them to step into that role will be important as we go into the championship part of our season. We're running stronger and smarted each week and the hard efforts are taking us to where we want to be."

Schuler finished 19th overall in the 256-runner field on the 6K course in a time of 21:47.3, helping the Spiders to a ninth-place finish. Amy Van Alstine followed Schuler in 31st place in 21:56.5. Nicol Traynor was 34th (22:01.0), Karen Guthrie was 96th (23:13.8) to round out the Spiders in the top 100.

"The goal was to finish in the top-10 and to compete as a team. We competed today even better than we have been competing all year," head men's coach Steve Taylor said. "We always come around this time of year and we seem to be on target. I feel very good about the way our top seven guys ran today, especially our top five. There were some really good runners up at the front and they raced as a team. It was a very large field with over 40 teams on the starting line. The race started and they found each other and pushed at the points in the race where they needed. They showed experience and patience."

The Richmond men also took home a similar ninth-place finish, led by Llano's 25th-place time of 31:07.6 on the 10K course. Jon Molz followed in 31:48.0 in 42nd place and Andrew Benford in 52nd (31:59.1). Tom Davis 62nd in 32:13.5, followed by Jon Wilson, Hunter Willis and Tim Quinn.

"I am happy with my race today," Matt Llano said. "I really like this meet and the course. There were a lot of people on the starting line and I believe this will help us as we go to our championships (A-10 and NCAA Region) over the next four weeks."

Texas Tech, Arkansas, Virginia Tech, UC-Irvine, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Richmond, Utah and James Madison rounded out the top 10 in the 41-team women's field.

Arkansas, Abilene Christian, Virginia Tech, Rend Lake, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Auburn, Texas Tech, Richmond and LSU comprised the top 10 of the 32 men's teams that raced.