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ELON, N.C. – The Elon cross country programs swept the field Saturday morning as the women’s and men’s programs took home team titles in the fourth annual Elon Invitational meet at the Elon Cross Country Course. The women scored 20 overall points while the men hung on to beat UNCG.
 
It is the first time since 2008 that both programs won at the same event, the last time coming at the Hagan Stone Classic. For the women it is the second straight win of the season after coming off a victory at the Demon Deacon Quad in the season-opening meet at Wake Forest.
 
The men won for the second time at the home invitational, the last coming in 2009 when the event was created.
 
“This is always our goal to try to win at home,” said Elon head coach Christine Engel. “Certainly on the men’s side a very close battle between us and Greensboro, but it feels good to have to victories in our open meet.”
 
Sophomore Haylee Dawe was the first runner to cross the line for the women with a time of 18:18 and in second place overall. The maroon and gold captured the 2-9 positions of the race.
 
“I’m really excited about the depth that we have (on the women’s side),” Engel said. “I saw a lot of positive things today, but also a lot of things that we still need to work on.”

Tereza Novotna and Elyse Bierut were next for the women in third and fourth respectively with shared time of 18:23. Seven seconds off pace was Allyson Oram in fifth followed by Kaitlin Snapp (sixth, 18:52) and Emily Tryon (seventh, 18:55).
 
Senior Christine Pacewicz came in ninth place with a time of 19:03 while junior Erin Macbeth followed clocked in at 19:08.
 
UNCG’s Chelsea Sumney won individualist honors with a time of 17:44, only the third time in the course’s history that a runner broke the 18-minute mark. Sumney also ran a time of 17:46 as an unattached runner in last year’s meet.
 
The men’s Luis Vargas was the first to cross the line for the Phoenix in second overall at a time of 25:37. Vargas competed in last year’s race, but had to drop out because of injury.
 
“I think Luis had a very strong effort today,” Engel said. “He’s been feeling a little under the weather all week so that made his performance even more impressive. It really showed that he’s a tough athlete this year.”
 
Ari Rothschild was the next to finish for Elon in fourth place and a time of 26:24. Adam Bernstein and Connor Mercurio followed in the fifth and sixth positions with times of 26:47 and 26:51 respectively.
 
Senior Ranley Gousse rounded out the top-10 performances for the men crossing the line in ninth with a time of 26:56.
 
Elon defeated UNCG by three points for the team title while Spartans’ Abraham Kemboi took home the individual title with a time 25:29.
 
“I thought the men in general really competed hard today,” Engel said. “I think they really wanted to win and fought hard for it. It certainly didn’t come easy. Greensboro is a really, really solid team and they worked for every point today.”
 
Elon returns to the course in couple weeks on Sept. 28 at the Charlotte Invitational in Charlotte, N.C.
 
“Anytime you’re coming off a win it helps the team have a little bit more confidence going into the next two weeks of training,” Engel said. “We’re looking forward to two solid weeks of training and heading to a meet in Charlotte. It is a very big meet, it is where the regional championships are held so a lot of teams will preview that course.
 
“It is a big meet and very competitive so we have to be really focused for the next two weeks.”

Women's Team Results
1. Elon - 20
2. UNCG - 43
3. North Carolina A&T - 84

Men's Team Results
1. Elon - 23
2. UNCG - 26
3. North Carolina A&T - 85

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Additional Comments

Junior James Stevenson
On performing well at the Elon Invitational
"It was the first official meet of the year and I think we performed very strong...I think it was a good day for Elon's men's and women's cross country. We're happy with it, but we're certainly not content with how we performed and we want to continue to push on from here and reach more of our goals that we set for ourselves."

Sophomore Haylee Dawe
On both the men's and women's program winning the Elon Invitational
"It's been an amazing season so far and I think this is a great way to open up with our 5K...It's an amazing result because we are both out there encouraging each other the entire time and I think our closeness helps us be better."