Sept. 27, 2003

Charleston, SC - Hundreds of spectators packed onto the greens of James Island County Park Saturday morning for the 22nd Annual Citadel Invitational Cross Country Meet.

Over 500 runners participated in the meet that consisted of 10 college men's teams, 11 college women's teams, 22 high school boys' varsity teams, 15 high school girls' varsity teams, ten boys' junior varsity and six girls' junior varsity teams.

The Bulldogs, who hosted the event, finished second overall for the men's 8k run with a total of 66 points, ahead of the College of Charleston who had 75, and behind Furman, who also took home first place for the women's 5k run with 18 and 25 points, respectively. The Citadel women's team finished fourth with 127 points.

"I am extremely happy with the results this morning," stated head coach Jody Huddleston. "Laura Hewston and Clara Crossman ran exceptionally well. It is encouraging to see these times at this point in the season."

Freshman runner Laura Hewston led the Citadel women's team placing tenth among 84 runners with a time of 19:43.88 and freshman runner Clara Crossman finished 19th with 20:21.54. Newcomer Amanda Rawl (21:34.80) and junior Laura Gisinger (21:39.17) placed 32nd and 34th respectively.

Senior runner Robert Killian led the Bulldog men's team, placing fourth out of 85 runners in the men's college division with a time of 27:16.78. Freshmen runners William Wilson and Matt Holmes finished 16th and 17th with times of 28:00.88 and 28:02.19, respectively.

Summerville High School placed first for both the girls' and boys' varsity divisions. Stratford's Dmitri Virnig was the top runner for the boys' with a time of 16:56 in the 5k run. Summerville's Michael Rella and David Johannesmeyer finished second and third. In girls' varsity, Summerville's Carlissa Heyward finished first among 120 runners with a time of 20:01.06 in the 5k run.

Summerville and Wando High schools finished first in both boys' and girls' junior varsity. Lexington High School junior varsity finished third for the boys' and Stratford finished third for the girls'.

The Bulldogs return to action October 11, at the Furman Invitational in Greenville, SC.