Alabama Women's Cross County Finishes Fourth at Belmont Opener
9/11/2002 12:00:00 AM
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» Women's Results (PDF)
The Alabama women's cross country team got the 2002 season underway with a fourth place finish at the Belmont Opener.
Freshman Nichole Abram was the Tide's top finisher with a 12th place finish. The rookie posted a time of 11 minutes and 28 seconds. Junior Virnetta Greene was next for Alabama with a 21st place 11:49 finish. Sophomore Ashley Roberts proved what great strides she has made since last season, posting an 11:56, good for 24th place.
"This was a very good start, much better than last year," Alabama head coach Steve Keith said. "This was a much more competitive field than we opened against last year. I think we need to run against good competition early to get into the season. We had three girls under 12 minutes which was pretty good. Ashley Roberts ran a very good race at 11:56. Her second half was almost as fast as Nicole's, so that was a good race for her."
Vanderbilt won the team race with 37 points. Host school Belmont was second with 48, followed by Southern Indiana, 83 and Alabama 119. Evansville rounded out the top-5 with 133 points.
"We need to work on running a little more as a team," Keith said. "I think we'll continue to improve, but this was a much better start than last year. Everyone really benefited from the summer training program."
Alabama returns to action in two weeks as host of the Crimson Classic Friday, Sept. 20 at the Harry Pritchett Golf Course.
