STATESBORO—The Georgia Southern cross country team dominated the Eagles XC Challenge Saturday morning at Seventh Mile Farm taking four of the top five finishes including Merabu Nagwandala's overall women's 5K win in the opening meet of the season.
 
In total, the Eagles raced eight competitors who all finished in the top-10 among collegiate athletes.
 
Nagwandala, a sophomore, won the race with a time of 18:53.25 and remains undefeated on the course after winning at the home meet last season. The Eagles also won as a team with 16 points.  
 
Following close behind was Carley Braman in second (19:51.80), Mattie Harris in third (20:09.90), Ellunde Montgomery in fourth (20:31.10) and Adriana Ducharme in sixth (21:51.32) to round-out the five-point scorers. With Braman's time, she moves into fifth-place in the course record books.
 
Coach Wesley Penberthy's comments: "I think today went really well. Our course is a little tougher than most in the region. We wanted to come out and compete and get a watermark for where we're at going into the rest of the season. We competed at a high level and tried out some different strategies for different runners."
 
Merabu Nagwandala's comments: "This is our home course. When you're at home, you've got to run the show. I want no one in front of me because, home is our place and I'm happy to help us defend it. Regardless of the competition level, I race against myself so that I always get better."
 
Other runners included Mckenzie Cromer (21:59.31), Kaitlin Rocker (22:27.40), and Doris Korir (22:50.21).
 
The team now takes a week off before returning to Seventh Mile Farm to host the GATA XC Classic on Oct. 5.