SALEM, Va. – The Emory & Henry College Men's & Women's Cross Country Teams got the 2016 season off to a start Thursday evening at the Roanoke Relays. The Wasps competed in a dual format against the Maroons in teams of two.

The Basics
MEN'S FINAL SCORE –  Roanoke 6, Emory & Henry 18
WOMEN'S FINAL SCORE – Roanoke 6, Emory & Henry 15
LOCATION – Salem, Va. – Roanoke College Elizabeth Campus

The Format
- Thursday's race was run differently than a normal cross country meet. The Wasps and Maroons put together teams of two, each of whom ran four 1,200 meter legs for a total of 4,800 meters (approximately three miles).
-The top three pairs for each team scored with the fourth-place team serving as displacers, similar to the sixth and seventh runners in a normal meet.

The Men
- Emory & Henry was led by the pair of junior Michael LoGrande (Alexandria, Va.) and sophomore Zane Moran (Floyd, Va.). The duo covered the 9,600-meter event in 29:32 to finish fifth overall.
- The second pair for E&H was seniors Alex Cooper (Christiansburg, Va.) and Kevin Watts (Stafford, Va.). The tandem ran a time of 29:33, beating their time from last year's relay by eight seconds.
- Also running for the Wasps was senior Jackson Feezell (Gastonia, N.C.) and junior Buck Kirtland (Richmond, Va.) – 31:25 – and junior Seth Hein (Fairfax, Va.) and freshman Colt Pierce (Lockhart, Texas) – 36:44.

The Women
- Emory & Henry's top squad was senior Elizabeth Wilson (Roanoke, Va.) and freshman Erica Grupp (Charlottesville, Va.), who covered the course in 37:34 for fourth place. The time was five seconds faster than what Wilson turned in last year with a different teammate.
- Sophomore Taylor Henderson (Glade Spring, Va.) and freshman Michelle Gentry (Troutville, Va.) finished seventh, coming in at 41:15.
- Sophomore Kelly Light (Blountville, Tenn.) and freshman Maddie Copenhaver (Glade Spring, Va.) went 41:43 as the Wasps' third place duo.

Notable
- Emory & Henry was without one of its top runners on the men's side and two of its top women.
- While staged as a competition between two schools, the main purpose of the relay is as a speed workout, with the 1,200-meter distance repeated four times for each runner.

Up Next
- Emory & Henry will next compete in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Preview meet on Friday, September 9 at the Bueva Vista Links Golf Course, the site of the 2016 ODAC Championships. Washington and Lee University serves as this year's host.

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-photo courtesy of Keith Lucas/Sideline Media