Eagles Cross Country Teams Run Well at Georgia's Bulldog Stampede
September 15, 2002

It’s a 10-hour trip by van from Ashland, OH, to Athens, GA. Lots of opportunity there for even the best map readers to take a wrong turn.

The Ashland University cross country teams, which visited the deep south over the weekend, never lost their way.

Both AU teams ran at that the Bulldog Stampede on Saturday, Sept. 14. The AU men were fourth in an eight-team field and the Eagle women were fourth out of seven teams.

Senior Nick Cordes (Madison, OH) gave the Eagles a tremendous individual effort. Cordes won the 8K race in 25:01, a 5:30.1 pace per mile. Second place went to Andrew Smith of South Florida, who finished in 25:33. Sophomore Nate Iler (Bucyrus, OH/Colonel Crawford) had AU’s second best placement, finishing 12th in 26:50. Senior Vince Swartzentruber (Fredericktown, OH) just missed finishing in the Top 20. He was 23rd in 27:09.

The host Bulldogs won the men’s crown with 46 points. Clemson (52) was second, Tulsa (78) was third and AU (94) fourth.

For the women, AU’s best finish came from junior Tara Griffin (Strongsville, OH), who was fourth. She covered the 5K course in 18:32. Sophomore Sherri Trent (Mansfield, OH/Univ. of Toledo) was 24th in 20:05. South Florida’s Christa Benton won the race in 17:54. Georgia Tech’s Katie Griffin was the runnerup in 18:08.

South Florida won the event with 32 points. Tulsa (53) was second and Georgia Tech (55) ended the day in third place. Ashland had 87 points.