ROCK HILL, SC -- The VMI men and sophomore Donnie Mikels were winners at the Winthrop Fall Classic as they beat several Big South conference rivals on the Winthrop University home course. Mikels won his first collegiate cross country race with a 18:54 clocking on the home course. Radford University and Washington & Lee University also competed in the meet in the men\'s 6K and women\'s 4K races.
Meanwhile, the Radford men (117 pts) finished just ahead of Division III Washington & Lee (133 pts) for fifth place honors. The Highlanders were led by freshmen Dawit Legesse (7th, 19:12.30), while junior Mike Meehan (15th, 19:36.30) and sophomore Joel Hanlon (25th, 19:58.60) garnered top 25 finishes as well.
The Washington & Lee men faired well against the Division I competition as defending NCAA South/Southeast Regional Champion Nathan Johnson took fourth place honors in a time of 19:08.50. Teammates Alex Mahoney (14th, 19:32.90) and Michael Welsh (21st, 19:53.90).
Impressively, the Washington & Lee women finished ahead of Division I schools VMI (8th, 201 pts) and Radford University (10th, 258 pts) with a 7th place finish (166 pts). Freshmen Jackie Burns led the Lady Generals with a 15th place effort (15:31.50) as the Washington & Lee could have finished further ahead of their in-state Division I adversaries as they ran without 2004 NCAA Nationals qualifier Lindsay Erickson.
Freshmen Kelsey Stafford paced the Lady Keyets of VMI with an 18th place finish (15:36.50) as the team defeated conference rivals Radford and Charleston Southern.
Top finisher for the Radford women was freshmen Ally Romanow (25th, 15:51.20).