Coleman, Gurney Lead Stags To 7-0 Record At Multi-Dual

Chino, CA • The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's cross country team dominated their conference foes on a misty Saturday at Prado Regional Park in the annual SCIAC Multi-Dual meet.  Running on the same course that the Stags qualified for the NCAA Championships last year, CMS bested Occidental College, the second ranked team in the region, 26-33 and went 7-0 overall in the meet.  CMS was ranked sixth regionally prior to the race, but should move up in the rankings due to their victory.

The Stags were led by senior Adam Coleman (Clayton [pictured, left]) and junior Chris Gurney (Ventura [pictured, right]).  Coleman, one of only two seniors [Brad Johnson (Berkeley) is the other] in the team's top 12, pulled away from Occidental's second and third runners over the last two thousand meters to finish second with a personal best time for the course of 26:37.  The winner of the team's ‘Big Dog' hat was Gurney, who over the final 400 meters ran down and also passed Oxy's second and third runners to place fourth overall.  CMS placed six athletes in the top 12 overall and 11 in the top 22.  The team had at least two of the top runners in the conference in every class including the second senior (Coleman), the top junior (Gurney), the top sophomore [Florian Scheulen (Encinitas), 10^th] and four of the top five freshmen [Brian Kopczynski (Coto de Caza), 7^th, Matt Cummins (Riverside), 11^th, Kris Brown (Seattle, WA), 18^th, Georgi Dinolov (Capitola), 22^nd].

On any anything, but typical October day a light rain fell much of Friday night and early Saturday morning which left the course wet and the dirt parts of the course very slick.  Coach Goldhammer's comments were directed to a quality team performance from top to bottom and a thankfulness for having real ‘Mudders'.  "The course was not going to be fast due to the rain, but we had run in even worse conditions last November in Ohio and I think we just got our Mudders going and competed versus worrying about getting wet or dirty."

The Multi-Dual meet is conducted each year as an all-conference competition that emphasizes dual meet scoring.  All eight SCIAC schools compete at the same time and the meet is scored as 28 separate dual meets.  The meet counts for 50 percent of the conference championship.  The other 50 percent will be determined by the results of the SCIAC Championships which will be contested on October 27 at La Mirada Regional Park at 9:00 am.

CMS Dual Meet Scores

Top 12 Individuals