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BLACKSBURG - The Virginia Tech cross country teams opened up the 2012 season today with the annual VT Alumni Invitational at the Tech Cross Country Course. The meet was unscored as it was used primarily as a tune-up for the teams as many competitors ran unattached.

In the men's 6k, the lone Hokie wearing the orange and maroon was redshirt junior Brian Welch who finished just outside the top 10 in 11th place with a time of 18:57.52. Notable finishes by Tech runners competing unattached were Pat Woodford who took 9th (18:54.41), Juan Campos in 19th (19:27.55) and George Carter in 21st (19:33.03).

Three Hokie women had top-25 times in the women's 4k. The best time came from freshman Ashley Hayes at 14:38.58 as she finished in 17th place while running unattached. Finishing in 23rd and 24th respectively were Stephanie Cario (15:08.88) and Ginny Jones (15:19.55) who were running attached.

Just over 60 runners competed in each race. Duke's Shaun Thompson (18:25.68) and Juliet Bottorff won the races (13:38.75).

The Hokies return to competition in two weeks as the team hosts the VT Invitational on Sept. 14 at the Tech Cross Country Course. The first race is slated to start at 6 p.m.

For updates on Virginia Tech cross country, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Track).