Men's Results • Women's Results
Harding's school record leads slew of Xavier bests
For immediate release . . . October 6, 2007

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Since the start of Ebony Harding's career on the Xavier University women's cross country team, Coach Joseph Moses predicted she would break the school record for 5,000 meters.

Saturday night, in her 10th Xavier race at that distance, Harding fulfilled Moses' prophecy. The junior from Baton Rouge, La., ran 5K in 20 minutes, 18.81 seconds at the Brooks Memphis Twilight Classic to break Katrina Davis' 4-year-old record and finish 113th out of 329 runners.

Davis, a Gulf Coast Athletic Conference champion in 2002 and 2003, set the old record of 20:24 at the NAIA Region XIII Championships in Atlanta on Nov. 8, 2003.

Harding was Xavier's brightest star on a night when nearly every Gold Nugget or Gold Rush runner set a career or season best. For the women, Ashley Broden (21:17.73), Stacey Windon (21:53.46), Jennifer Garcia (22:45.35) and Brittany Everett (23:51.62) had season bests. In the 8,000-meter men's race, Darren Wallace (27:45.20), Joe Drexler-Dreis (28:41.23) and Bryan Khan (29:08.85) ran career bests. Jordan Wilson (29:44.35) and Mario Myles (29:55.53) had season bests.

Wallace was the fastest Gold Rush finisher. He was 165th in a field of 341.

Xavier scored 809 points to finish 31st out of 41 women's teams. The Rush was 36th out of 42 men's teams with 946 points. Individual champions were Arkansas-Little Rock's Whitney Kerth (17:22.19) in the women's race and Daniel Kirwa (23:30.35), who ran unattached, in the men's.

The meet was Xavier's last before the GCAC Championships on Oct. 20 at Highland Road Park in Baton Rouge, La. Xavier is the defending GCAC men's and women's team champion. Harding was second to Loyola's Mary Erin Imwalle in the 2006 women's race, and the two are expected to duel again for the title.