Cross-country finishes fourth at ECAC meet

Revenge was sweet for the Yale women's cross country team, but finishing first made it a little bit sweeter.

After losing the Duke-Yale cup to the host Blue Devils a month ago, the Bulldogs outdistanced Duke and the rest of the 16-team field to capture the title at the ECAC championships held in New York Friday.

Freshman Megan Sullivan's ninth-place finish in 18:24.4 paced the Blue Devils, who tied for fourth with Atlantic Coast Conference rival Virginia with 114 points. Yale's total was 64.

"I think [our team] did a great job, considering all those teams there," Sullivan said. "We really wanted to beat Yale but that just didn't happen; they had a great race too."

Sullivan, who also led Duke in the Yale meet, recorded her career best mark for a 5-kilometer race, an improvement of more than 40 seconds from her time at Notre Dame two weeks ago.

"I hadn't been training a lot before the Notre Dame meet, I had an ankle sprain," Sullivan said. "Everything came together for this meet. I've gotten a lot more training in the past week, so I was able to do a lot better."

After leading Duke at Notre Dame, Beth O'Donnell trailed Sullivan across the line in 18:33.7, 14th overall. Colette Gurtler was next at 18:36.8 (17th overall), followed by Kim Folk (18:56.9, 29th) and Kristin Faraguna (19:13.6, 45th).

"We're all so close in the times, and all so close during the race that there really isn't the number one person on our team," Sullivan said. "I think we're all pretty much the same. It's a matter of who comes in first, but we're all so close that it really doesn't matter."