RUSTON – Jacqueline Rushford wanted to gain some momentum midway through the cross country regular season, and the sophomore accomplished that goal Saturday.
Rushford won the 3-mile women's race by nearly a minute in the 42-runner field at the Louisiana Tech Mook 5. She clocked an 18:43.
"Jacqueline did very well overall and eventually ran away from the competition," said NSU coach Nathanial McReynolds. "We had a lot of good performances near the top today."
NSU produced three of the top six finishers with sophomores Erin Wrozek (19:48) Erin Sitarz (20:08) and Emily Sitarz (20:26) finishing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. The Lady Demons recorded three wins in the triple-dual format, beating Louisiana Tech, ULM and Grambling. Members of eight different teams competed, but only those three teams fielded complete rosters.
On the men's side. Senior Jeremy Elliott led the way with a 21st-place finish in a 54-runner field. Elliott finished the 4-mile course in 23:05, nearly 2:30 behind the leader.
Freshmen Lorence Ballow (28th, 24:12), Anthony Renteria (29th, 24:19) and Chase Slater (31st, 24:32) were other top finishers for the Demons.
"The younger guys were pretty close together," McReynolds said. "Most of them are learning how to run a 4-mile race.
"They relaxed on the first mile and were able to push through into the fourth mile. I saw a lot of improvement from the last race."
