Hogan Runs Strong To Fourth Place Finish At Penn State Invite

Bad Luck Dooms Men; Women Finish In 22nd-Place

Freshman James Stern

Oct. 16, 2010

STATE COLLEGE, PA - All-American senior Megan Hogan made her season debut at the Penn State National Invitational on Saturday afternoon and ran a strong race finishing in fourth place (of 304 runners), helping the GW women to a 22nd-place finish (out of 31 competing schools).

Hogan completed the course in 20:36, thirteen seconds behind the winner, Villanova's Sheila Reid. Hogan started the race slow and made a move towards the front of the pack at the halfway point of the 6K race. She then found herself in a grouping of the top runners including Amanda Marino of Villanova and Elise DeRoo of Colgate.

"She took the lead tried to press with about a mile left in the race; became three (runners) wide open and came down to a kick at the end. And they got her" said head coach Brian Beil. "It's all good, we practiced our plan and it will not be like this in a couple of weeks. We will be a lot faster".

Senior Jessica Stern finished in 117th after running the course in 23:01. Following six seconds behind Stern was sophomore Heather Stevens who clocked in at 23:07 (128th). Also finishing for the Colonials were freshman Kelly Bartz (24:23), sophomore Julia Weir (24:26), junior Emily Foster (24:39) and senior Estelle Faulkner (26:22).

An afternoon of bad luck scuttled the GW men's plans as they did not have enough harriers cross the finish line to register a team finish. Freshman Alex Dadds was spiked in the first half mile of the race. As he was spiked he lost one of his shoes and saw nearly the entire field pass him as he struggled to put it back on, leading to a poor finish.

Freshman Rex Sheikh was accidently tripped from behind and then trampled by the field. Sheikh sustained injuries and continued to run for another mile and a half. He was removed from the race by the medical staff.

The George Washington cross country programs return to action at the Atlantic 10 Championships in Pittsburgh, PA on October 30th.

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