LEXINGTON, Va.- Anthony Harris paced the VMI men's cross country team with a time of 9:49 over a 3200 meter course as the Keydets swept the top 12 places in a meet against Southern Virginia at the Virginia Horse Center Tuesday evening.

Harris was joined by Donnie Mikels (9:52), Edwin Lugo (10:05) Nick Mazzenga (10:07) and Graham Forbes (10:10) in the top five. Mikels was again impressive after finishing second in last Saturday's meet at Radford.

“Seeing the guys running up front in a tight pack was inspiring,” said VMI head cross country coach Paul Spangler. “Harris (last year's top returner) and Mikels (emerging as this year's top freshman) look very impressive up front. I have been particularly impressed with the progress Nick Mazzenga, Ben Switzer, and Brian Welch have made from last year. Ben is a freshman middle-distance runner from Rockbridge Co. High School and has transitioned very well to college cross country. Brian Welch was injured much of last year and has rebounded very well as a result of a solid summer of training. Nick emerged as one of the top steeplechasers in the Big South and he is continuing that success in cross country.”

Southern Virginia's Kim Anderson won the women's event, turning in a time of 12:14 over the same 3200 meter course. She was followed by VMI's Amber Blain (12:22), Washington & Lee's Tippins Stone (12:36), VMI's Emily Naslund (12:41) and W&L's Lindsay Erickson (13:24).

“Both Amber and Emily looked very solid running up front,” said Spangler. “Our goal in three weeks is for them to split the time that they ran over 3200m today, when they run 5k. If they can do that, they should contend for All-Big South honors come October. With the addition of top recruit Ania Najda and sophomore Kathleen Resetar, who have been training very well the last couple of weeks, we'll be a much improved team.”

Both the VMI men's and women's cross country teams return to action Saturday, when they host the Blue Ridge Relay.