There were no brooms being used to clean up opponents from the course. On Saturday, however, both the Cavalier men's and women's first-place times did all the sweeping at the Virginia-hosted Lou Onesty Invitational.
"I was thrilled with both groups," Virginia coach Jason Dunn said. "I could not have asked for it to be much better than this. It is not like we rested this week. We had two workouts this week, so this is a good start, and we will be able to move forward from here."
The Virginia cross country men's squad, led by second-place finisher senior Soeren Lindner in the 8-kilometer event, finished first overall, scoring 39 points ahead of second-place Duke University. Lindner headed a Virginia-heavy front line that included a third-place finish by junior Andrew Dumm, a fourth-place finish by freshman Andy Biladeau and a seventh-place finish by junior Jeff Eggleston.
On the women's side, sophomore Emily Harrison paced the Cavaliers with the top spot ahead of William & Mary. Harrison, who placed second in last year's event, finished more than 12 seconds ahead of the second-place runner from Davidson College in the 5-kilometer event. Following the All-ACC runner came seventh-place finisher freshman Lauretta Dezubay, ninth-place junior Kara Scanlin and 10-place sophomore Kristin Milot.
The Cavaliers, who won the event last year, were excited to see an all-around successful performance by the entire competing team this early in the season. Both Lindner and Harrison were quick to acknowledge their teammates in finishing strong to help secure the title.
"They did great," Harrison said. "It was really nice to have them out there and running as a group today. It was awesome. It was a nice way to cap off the first race."
Lindner agreed and stressed the talent of his younger teammates.
My teammates "did even better than I did," Lindner said. "Everyone [recorded] a personal best from the top seven by a minute and within the season, which is really a lot. [Freshman] Andy Biladeau got fourth, just behind me, and I am a fourth year."
Both Biladeau, a Florida native, and Dezubay, a Pennsylvania native, competed and placed well in their first-ever college competition. In last year's race, Harrison ran in a similar fashion, finishing second in the first college action of her career.
Harrison and her coaching staff pointed to this weekend's success as a result of a strong off-season.
"We have done a lot of work on the men's side this summer, and they showed it running as tough as they did," Dunn said. "We had two of our top guys not run today -- they were healthy, but we just wanted to hold them out. We are really good on the men's side -- we are thrilled. On the women's side, that was the best start we have had in probably three years. It was great to see Emily win
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