So far, so perfect for the Vanderbilt women's cross country team.
The Commodores edged Eastern Kentucky by placing five runners in the top 10, and seven runners in the top 17 to win the Commodore Classic at Percy Warner Park Saturday morning.
With a win at the Belmont-VU opener on Sept. 4, that gives Vanderbilt two wins in two races, both because of strong packing performances.
"We're really stressing that right now," said head coach Steve Keith. "Our team is only going to live and die by keeping everyone together like that.That was a nice effort for them. It was a little closer with Eastern than I would have liked it but they're not a bad team."
Junior Kristabel Doebel-Hickok led Vanderbilt with a second-place overall finish, running the 5K race in 18:16.76. Four other Commodore runners finished within 40 seconds of her. Sophomore Louise Hannallah came in sixth overall, running the course in 18:47.35, with freshman Allie Scalf right on her heels with a 18:47.78.
Sophomore Jordan White and junior Adrienne DiRaddo rounded out the top five on Vanderbilt with times of 18:48.94 and 18:55.60, respectively.
High grasses, humidity and some rain showers didn't make for ideal conditions but the team coped. The race was also a full kilometer (.62 miles) longer than the Belmont-VU opener.
"It was pretty muddy but with long spikes it didn't really bother me," Doebel-Hickok said. "Our girls grouped up really well. Our team has a lot of chemistry right now and it's going really well."
"I thought Kristabel felt a lot better today and ran with a little bit more confidence," Keith said. "She ran a little bit faster than last year on a much slower course."
The quick start for the women's team serves as a good platform for more intense competition coming up, including the Louisville Invitational on Oct. 3 and Pre-Nationals on Oct. 17.
"It's only going to get tougher but it definitely puts a positive vibe on the start of the year," Doebel-Hickok said.
On the men's side, the team wasn't able to group quite as well but still carded a third-place finish in the 8K (4.96 miles) race.
"Earlier in the week, we were working out really nice as a group and we haven't translated that out to the meet yet," Keith said. "Plus we've got a bunch of sophomores and freshmen out there, not so experienced with the 5-mile race, so that's a difficult transition."
Lipscomb took first place, with Morehead State finishing runner-up.
Sophomore Jenner Kizer led Vanderbilt, running a 27:19.56. Senior Thomas Davis notched a 27:32.09, and sophomore Kyle Rewick and freshmen Billy Malmed and Chris Baker were the other point-scorers for the Commodores.
"We've got to work on running more together and all 'on' on the same day," Keith said. "Billy Malmed ran well as a freshman, I thought he moved up nicely during the race, and Jenner looked good up front. There's a lot of positives but we need to get a much more cohesive group."
