Laker men place fourth, Laker women 10th at
Georgia State Invitational
 Berkhelde places 16th overall in debut for Clayton State men

PANTHERSVILLE, Ga. – September 15, 2007 – The Clayton State Laker men’s and women’ cross country opened the 2007 season on Saturday with some solid performances at the 35th annual Georgia State Invitational. The Clayton State men placed fourth amongst the non-Division I programs in the 14-team field, while the Laker women placed 10th in the 15-team field.

The Clayton State men finished with 104 points, finishing only five points behind Morehouse for third place, and finished four points ahead of Division III power Emory. NAIA power Shorter won the event with 46 points, followed by Berry with 84 points.

For the Lakers, freshman Walid Berkhedle made an impressive Clayton State debut, finishing 16th overall with a time of 27:44.57 minutes. He was the top Division II runner in the meet and the No. 4 finisher amongst the non-Division I runners.

Clayton State also had a 35th-place finish from junior Anthony Aguilar with a time of 28:35.60, while Au Nguyen placed 57th in 29:17.76 and Joey Chino placed 58th overall with a mark of 29:18.70. Rounding out the Laker scoring was Jarrid Casimir placing 76th in 30:08.55, and Jeremy Adkins struggled to 152nd in 36:04.01.

"I was content with their effort, but not satisfied," said Clayton State head coach Mike Mead. "Walid made an impressive debut on a slow course. He is definitely a competitor! We have room for a lot of improvement, but I liked what I saw."

The Laker women were without two-time Division II All-American Allison Kreutzer, who was held out due to a foot problem. The top Clayton State finisher was Chelsea Ellis, who finished 60th with a time of 22:16.11. In addition, Terrica Hamilton finished 99th in 23:51, followed by Jennifer Rhodes in 125th in 25:11.53, Kara Stokes in 132nd in 25:38.29, Titisha Cochran in 151st in 29:01.59 and Jessica Baskerville finished 156th in 29:47.44.

The Lakers had three runners with no prior cross country experience competing in the meet.

"We are a very young team and it showed today, especially without Allison in the lineup," Mead said. "Our newcomers held their own, but our returning veterans did not get the job done today. This is a good bunch, so we just need to be patient and the veterans need to produce."

Clayton State’s next meet is the Jaguar XC Invitational next Saturday (Sept. 22) in Augusta.