There is an age-old saying - "Nobody is perfect."
But the No. 10 Virginia women's cross country team was just that in its season-opening race Friday. The first seven runners to place in the woman's 5K race at the annual Lou Onesty Invitational at Panorama Farms were all wearing Cavalier orange. They set a new meet record with a perfect score of 15, placing them well ahead of runner-up Virginia Commonwealth, which finished with a score of 62. Leading the way for Virginia was redshirt senior Stephanie Garcia who completed the course in a blazing 17-minute, 55.35 second pace, easily good enough for first overall.
"It's my fifth year, my last time running this race as a Cavalier, so I wanted to do well," Garcia said. "I just wanted to go out and represent the team really well, keep us honest, have a good pace and get a good workout in."
The victory marked the third consecutive year that the team won the event, perhaps validating the team's lofty aspirations for the 2010 campaign.
"I think that we are totally going to surpass our expectations this year," Garcia said. "We have such a strong team, so I have a lot of confidence. We're all just meshing really well."
Meanwhile, the No. 22-ranked men's team put together its own impressive debut to the season, finishing in second place with 43 points - just behind Norfolk State, which earned the win with a 38-point total. Senior All-American Emil Heineking, who set the meet record at the event last season, did not race. The Cavaliers remained competitive, however, thanks to a solid race by their top finisher, senior Ryan Collins, who came in third overall with a time of 25:13.53 on the 8K course. Collins appeared barely winded as he crossed the finish line and followed the race by leading his team in a long "cool down" run.
"We just wanted to run as a group today, just try to feel good going through it," Collins said. "We just wanted to get our feet wet. This was our first experience out on the course this season so we didn't want to do anything crazy."
Although the opening race served as test run of sorts for the team, six of its runners finished in the top 20 and all seven placed in the top 25. Coach Jason Vigilante was encouraged by his teams' results but still cognizant of the fact that the season will only get more difficult from here on out. Both Collins and Vigilante agreed the team must improve its mental toughness to realize its potential this season.
"We had some [guys] sit out today, so with the people that we ran we were looking for some of them to step up and really compete hard, and I was fairly pleased with what we saw," Vigilante said. "[But] we know that every week the competition will get better and better ... And if we're going to have a chance to repeat the [ACC] title that we got in 2008, we have to be at our best, so we have a long way to go."
Virginia next will compete Oct. 1 at the Paul Short Invitational, which will take place at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
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