Mundell Leads JMU to Sixth-Place Finish at ECAC Meet

Saturday, November 22

Bronx, N.Y.

11:30 a.m.

James Madison University

ECAC Championship

Photo by: Colonial Athletic Association

11/22/2014 5:20:00 PM | Cross Country

BRONX, New York – Sophomore Tessa Mundell (Mohnton, Pa./Governor Mifflin) capped off the 2014 cross country season by finishing ninth to lead James Madison to a sixth-place team showing at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships Saturday at Van Courlandt Park in the Bronx.

Mundell covered the 5,000-meter course with a personal-best time of 18:03.7, good for ninth place out of 98 runners. She was just over 20 seconds back of the individual champion from Villanova, Stephanie Schappert, who won in 17:42.4

The Dukes finished sixth as a team with 140 points after the top-5 JMU runners scored in the top 50. Columbia won the team title after placing all scorers in the top 20, finishing with 49 points.

Sophomore Carol Strock (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) was JMU's No. 2 runner as she took 20th place in 18:25.6, also a collegiate personal-best mark. Finishing back-to-back in 31st and 32nd places were senior Rachel Hagen (Sterling, Va./Potomac Falls) and freshman Erica Gray (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury). Hagen concluded her collegiate cross country career in 18:42.6 while Gray was a half second back in 18:43.1. Freshman Nora Raher (Centreville, Va./Chantilly) completed JMU's scoring output after crossing the finish line in 19:19.2 to snag 52nd place (48 scoring).

Six other Dukes were on the course Saturday. Freshman Nicole Goff (Yorktown, Va./Grafton) was 53rd in 19:22.5, followed by freshman Haley Mahn (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley) in 59th with a time of 19:39.1 and sophomore Meghan Malloy (Haddonfield, N.J./Haddonfield Memorial), who placed 61st in 19:41.

Rounding out the championship for JMU were seniors Kristen Landry (Boonton Township, N.J./Mountain Lakes) and Tiel Westbrook (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis) and freshman Angelique DeMeo (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville). Landry finished 70th in 19:53.9, Westbrook took 74th in 19:59.6 while DeMeo was 93rd in 20:56.5.

JMU was without its top runner, junior Kathleen Stewart (Holland, Pa./Council Rock South), who was unable to race after leading the Dukes in every race she competed this season.

Madison's distance runners now turn their attention to the indoor track and field season, which begins Jan. 8, 2015, at the Navy Winter Invitational in Annapolis, Maryland.