Sept. 10, 2006

By Ed Cassiere, XULA Sports Information

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Xavier University of Louisiana returned to intercollegiate athletics Saturday by winning both team championships at the Southern University Invitational cross country meet on Southern's campus.

The Gold Nuggets scored 29 points to win the women's title by 19 points over runner-up Southern, and the Gold Rush scored 30 points to finish six points ahead of Mississippi Valley in the men's division.

Xavier sophomores Ebony Harding and Darren Wallace led their respective teams in their collegiate debuts. Harding ran two miles in 13 minutes, 19.04 seconds to finish third out of 19 runners in the women's race. Wallace ran three miles in 15:43.14 and placed fourth out of 19 men.

Both Harding and Wallace were eligible to compete for Xavier a year ago, but the effects of Hurricane Katrina -- which hit metro New Orleans on August 29, 2005, five days before the start of the cross country season -- forced the university to suspend athletics for the entire school year.

Xavier had five of the nine fastest women, including a 3-4-5 finish for Harding, Mimi Mornay (13:25.68) and Stacey Young (13:31.14).

Xavier's men finished 4-5-6-7-8 in their race, with Joshua Miles finishing fifth, three quarters of a second behind Wallace. Joe Drexler-Dreis, a transfer from Miami (Fla.), was sixth in 16:04.67.

Mississippi Valley runners won both races. Bolte Mhlanga won the women's race in 13:16.77, about one second faster than teammate Brenda Reid, and Johnnie Cope was first in the men's race in 15:21.25.