THIBODAUX, Louisiana – Tulane cross country continued with its success on Saturday, with the men recording first-, second- and third-place finishes for the second consecutive time this fall and the women also taking the number one individual spot in the Nicholls Invitational.
Sophomore Evans Kipchumba won the meet, earning a time of 20:52.98 in the four-mile race, and was followed directly by graduate student Tom Coe and freshman Samuel Kellum, each finishing with career-high times of 21:05.27 and 21:08.73, respectively.
"Our top three guys, Evans [Kipchumba], Tom [Coe] and Sam [Kellum], got out strong, took control of the race at the half minute mark and stayed in control until the final mile," director of cross country and track and field Eric Peterson said. "Evans ran away and won the race easily as predicted. I was happy to see [Coe and Kellum] both push themselves and give that effort and more importantly, to see it pay off. Now we've got to work on strengthening our team in the number four, five and six spots, but the guys up front are running well and they did so today."
Redshirt senior McKenzie Melius led the way for Tulane in the 5K, crossing the finish line at 18:56.42 to win the Nicholls Invitational for the second year in a row. Three others from the Green Wave roster finished in the top ten among 36 opponents, with senior Mary Catherine Stovall coming in seventh with a career-best time (19.23.43), redshirt sophomore Bridgid Selfors coming in eighth (19:24.26) and redshirt sophomore Pauline Helm coming in 10th (20:11.83).
"The women ran better today that in our opening race at UNO. I was happy to see that we've been able to improve over the last three weeks and demonstrate that in competition," Peterson said. "McKenzie [Melius] came out strong today and took command of the race pretty early on and won going away – it's always important for an athlete early in the season, for her confidence, to win a race that she probably should win and do it in a very business-like fashion. Overall, our front four runners definitely improved from the opening race and are really moving in the right direction."
Both the men and women's teams finished second overall, defeating Nicholls State and Southern while falling only to LSU.
The Green Wave men totaled 45 points and produced an average time of 21:48.60 while LSU, Nicholls and Southern recorded 31, 77 and 89 points, respectively. From the women's side, the Olive and Blue earned 43 points and averaged a time of 19:47.12, while LSU, Nicholls and Southern had 23, 66 and 102 points, respectively.
Sophomores Ian Valdez and Jamie Polakoff also raced today for the men, finishing in 18th and 23rd place with new personal best times of 22:48.08 and 23:07.97, respectively. Senior Paige Fatland rounded out the appearances from the women's side, coming in 18th at 20:59.68.
Tulane cross country is back in action next Friday, heading to Baton Rouge to compete in the LSU Cross Country Invitational.
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