Nashville, Tenn. - The state of Tennessee dominated at the 2007 Belmont Opener held at Percy Warner Park with Belmont winning the men’s run and Tennessee winning the women’s run.

Four Belmont men placed in the top-six, leading the Bruins to a commanding win with a score of 23, while the Lady Vols of Tennessee captured the women’s crown by placing two runners in the top-three. The Bruin women finished tied for third with UAB. The individual collegiate winner for the men’s run was MTSU’s Festus Chemaio with a time of 15:12:45. Unattached runner Gabriel Rodriguez paced all runners with a time of 15:01.27. Sarah Bowman of UT-Knoxville won the women’s race with a blazing time of 14:00.58.

Belmont’s quartet of winning runners was led by seniors Jacob Buckman and John Brigham with third and fourth place times of 15:20:52 and 15:21:19. Juniors Caleb Swartz and Ben McGlothlin rounded out the top-six with times of 15:21:49 and 15:29:07 respectively. The Bruins also were represented by Hillary Cheruiyot and Kip Hill at the tenth and eleventh slots to give the Bruins a total of six top-11 runners.

Eastern Illinois, paced by Tim Hall, who finished 13th, placed second with a total score of 84. They were followed closely by Vanderbilt with 99 points. Commodore runner Austin Williamson led the way for Vanderbilt with a seventh place finish. Lipscomb and Middle Tennessee State rounded out the top-five with scores of 122 and 125. Ryan Chastain was the top Bison athlete with a ninth place finish.

The Southeastern Conference was well-represented in the women’s run by winner University of Tennessee at Knoxville and runner-up Vanderbilt. Lady Vol winner Sarah Bowman captured the individual crown. Fellow Volunteers Katie Van Horn and Jackie Areson finished third and fifth respectively. Vanderbilt was paced by sixth place finisher Adrienne DiRaddo. UAB runners Stephanie Gammon and Whitney Mays finished 13th and 15th to lead the Blazers.

Sophomore Brittany Thune placed seventh for the Bruins with a time of 14:37.56, while senior Lauren Williams finished ninth with a time of 14:48.24. Megan Saunders, Elizabeth Smothers, and Dom Roy all placed in the top-25.

Belmont resumes its cross country season September 15 at the Vanderbilt Invitational.