Sept. 14, 2007
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Arizona State University cross country team fared well at the 2007 Dave Murray Invitational, held Friday afternoon at the Del Urich Golf Course in Tucson, with the No. 7 Sun Devil women winning the team title while the men finished just behind No. 19 BYU for second place.
Jenna Kingma won the women's race in 13:42.52 to pace the women with 22 points while rival Arizona scored 51 points to finish second. On the men's side, BYU scored 35 points with unranked ASU taking second with 42 points, despite two of its top runners, Kyle Alcorn and David Gott, watching from the side of the course.
With her victory, Kingma became the 15th Sun Devil woman to win an individual title in program history while also becoming just the third to capture the Dave Murray Invitational. Brooke Bennett won the 2005 meet while Amy Hastings won back-to-back races (2003 and 2004). Kingma is now tied for fifth on the all-time wins list for women at ASU with one more win putting her into a tie for third.
Kingma was followed across the finish line by runner-up Kari Hardt (13:42.79) and third-place finisher Ali Kielty (13:43.11) in the 4,000m run while Angela Spadafino (fifth in 13:48.94) and Krystal Duke (12th in 14:33.76) rounded out the scoring positions for the Sun Devils. Also competing for ASU were Whitney Lemieux (13th in 14:42.89), Whitney Blue (14th in 14:50.52) and Chelsea Caloia (32nd in 15:47.87).
On the men's side, Mikias Gelagle led the way as he placed fifth overall in 18:21.24 while Ben Engelhardt (sixth in 18:24.57) and Joey Heller (seventh in 18:25.66) followed closely behind. Jeff Helmer (12th in 18:32.74) and Alonso Contreras (19th in 19:00.16) rounded out the Top 5 scorers in the men's 6,000m run for ASU. Other Sun Devils competing in the meet included Santos Castro (21st in 19:07.72), Collin Eckelman (25th in 19:17.90), Shane Snyder (31st in 19:33.51), Jack Mann (37th in 19:41.74), David Ryan (44th in 19:59.74) and Sid Walters (85th in 22:03.76).
After a weekend off from competition, the Sun Devils return to action when they head to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by Minnesota on September 29.