Sept. 26, 2003

Cary, N.C. - Shalane Flanagan continued to her winning ways, by finishing first for the second year in a row at the Great American Meet in Cary, N.C. Flanagan won the 5K race with a time of 16:44.6, 23 seconds ahead of the second place finisher.

The women's squad as a whole finished second with 55 points, while the men's team finished 15th out of 22 schools competing in the 8K race. Sophomore Carol Henry and Junior Erin Donohue finished third and fourth respectively. Henry had a time of 17:14.6 and Donohue had a time of 17:29.4. N.C. State was the overall winner for the women with 45 points and Northern Arizona was the winner for the men's race with 114 points.

"On the women's side I think we competed really well," said head coach Michael Whittlesey. "Unfortunately with the way things placed, N.C. State wins for the day. As the year goes on I know we're going to get stronger."

Junior Brian McGovern led the men's team with a 24th place finish and a time of 26:23.3. The men overall totaled 408 points.

"The men started out really well," said Whittlesey. "We started executing our team plan, but about a mile and a half to two miles into the race, we lost confidence and stopped executing the plan. The race became much more individual and we lost strength as a team."

Freshman Megan Owen finished in 18th place with a time of 18:28.6. Sophomore Kristen Stroupe and freshman Megan Kaltenbach also finished towards the top as Stroupe placed 29th and Kaltenbach placed 32nd. Stroupe had a time of 18:45.9 and Kaltenbach had a time of 18:51.3.

Flanagan was the Honda Athlete of the Year for Cross Country in 2002 as well the 2002 National Champion, but she tried to emphasize the team goals in this meet.

"We're ranked ninth right now, but by the end of the season we are going to be able to show people we're better than a ninth ranked team," said Flanagan. "I think this was a good jumping point, a good start for a great season."