Tuxbury finishes sixth as Bulldogs open 2015 season

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Annmarie Tuxbury (New Hartford, Conn.) ran to a sixth-place finish on the women's side and Milan Duka (Belgrade, Serbia) finished 32nd in the men's race as the Bryant University cross country teams opened the 2015 season with the 15th annual Nassaney Invitational on Saturday morning.

The women finished fifth with a total score of 140 points. Providence took home the top five spots for a perfect score of 15. Sacred Heart (2nd) was the only Northeast Conference to finish higher than the Bulldogs. The men finished seventh with 201 points. PC won the race with 36 points.

Tuxbury paced the Bulldogs in the first meet of the year, finishing sixth with a time of 17:39. Classmate Erin Svensen (Medway, Mass.) was the next to cross as she finished 25th with a time of 19:02. Elizabeth Willmonton (Rowley, Mass.) finished 34th with a time of 19:21, Emily McNeil (Shelton, Conn.) finished 36th with a time of 19:24 and Staci Rezendez (Ludlow, Mass.) rounded out Bryant's top five, finishing 39th with a time of 19:28. Sarah Lapham (Greenwich, N.Y.) and Brittany Sarza (Uxbridge, Mass.) finished 46th (19:50) and 47th (19:52), respectively.

Duka finished 32nd with a time of 15:46 to lead the men, while Russell Stevens (Colchester, Conn.) finished right behind at 35th (15:54). Freshman Matthew McGovern (Long Beach, N.Y.) also finished in the top 40, placing 39th with a time of 16:05. Richard Landry (Holyoke, Mass.) and Thomas Mullally (Mastic Beach, N.Y.) finished 44th (16:12) and 51st (16:22) to round out Bryant's top five runners.

The Bulldogs will now have a month off before competing in the Paul Short Run on October 2 at Lehigh University.