METAIRIE, Louisiana -- In her first collegiate cross country race, Taylor Price set a Xavier University of Louisiana record — one of several fast times for the Gold Nuggets and Gold Rush Saturday in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Festival.
Price, a freshman from the Houston suburb of Missouri City, Texas, and a graduate of Ridge Point High School, ran the 5,000-meter course at Lafreniere Park in 18 minutes, 7.5 seconds. She bettered Catherine Fakler's XULA mark of 18:08.32 at the 2013 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championships. Price placed ninth out of 54 finishers and was faster than 23 entrants from NCAA Division I colleges.
"I was very excited to perform at my first collegiate meet," Price said. "I was nervous before and at the beginning of the race, but I thought about all the hard work and training and preformed my best."
For the first time in the program's history, four Gold Nuggets finished a 5K in less than 20 minutes. Sophomores Brianna Pace (26th place, 19:08.7), Dionysia Love (28th, 19:16.5) and Maliya Vaughan (29th, 19:17.7) were considerably closer to 19 minutes than 20. Their times rank 9-12-13 on the all-time Gold Nuggets list.
"Our ladies came out fast and ran very well," XULA coach Joseph Moses said.
Leading the Gold Rush in the men's 5K were senior Christopher August (20th place out of 54, 15:41.6) and freshman Clydarius Everett (36th, 16:36.5), whose times rank second and 10th, respectively, on the XULA list covering 2002 to the present. (Complete 5K times are not available for 1994-2001, the first eight seasons of the program's modern era.)
August was about 11 seconds from Kwame Jackson's XULA record of 15:30.90 set in 2014.
Also competing were Imani Walker (50th, 22:34.3) of the Gold Nuggets and Oji Wells(38th, 17:16.6), Darrick Williams (42nd, 17:25.3) and Ammiel Williams (50th, 18:49.5) of the Gold Rush.
Loyola, the host school, divided the team scoring into NCAA DI and non-DI. Both XULA teams finished second in the non-DI standings. The Gold Nuggets trailed Spring Hill 25 points to 40, and the Gold Rush trailed Spring Hill 20-52.
Tulane produced both individual winners. Mckenzie Melius won the women's race in 17:31.0, and Emmanuel Rotich led the men in 14:13.0.
The Gold Nuggets and Gold Rush will travel to Baton Rouge, La., for the LSU Invitational next Saturday at Highland Road Park. The women's 5K will start at 7:30 a.m., and the men's 5K will start at 8:10.
Results: Men Women
Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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