By Chad Lucas, Sports Reporter, The Chronicle-Herald

Sep 28, 2008 - Janice Ashworth is back at Dalhousie and picking up right where she left off on the AUS women’s cross-country circuit.

Ashworth raced to victory in the Saint Mary’s Invitational, her first meet of the year, to help the Tigers capture the team competition on Saturday at Point Pleasant Park.

Her time of 18 minutes, 43 seconds put her 13 seconds ahead of Gina Stewart of St. Francis Xavier (18:56) in the women’s five-kilometre race.

Ashworth was racing for the Tigers for the first time since 2006, when she helped Dalhousie win a bronze medal at the CIS cross-country championships.

The Dunrobin, Ont., native won three straight AUS titles from 2003-05 and went on to capture the CIS silver medal each year. She’s also a four-time first-team All-Canadian. After taking 2007 off, Ashworth has returned to Dal to pursue a graduate degree.

Ashworth’s Tigers teammates Caroline Schlosser (19:16) and Kaitlyn Watters (19:45) finished third and fourth, respectively, as Dalhousie captured the team title with 23 points to St. Francis Xavier’s 32.

The X-Women’s Holly Van Gestel finished fifth in 19:45, while Dal’s Rebecca Reeves was sixth in 20:05.

Bree Bates and Helena Fiore of StFX, Stephanie Bennett of Dal and the X-Women’s Maddy MacDonald rounded out the top 10.

On the men’s side, 2007 runner of the year David Gerych of StFX picked up his first win of 2008, helping the X-Men cruise to the team title as well.

Gerych took the 7.5-kilometre race in 23:57, ahead of teammate Peter Doubravsky (24:06).

Matt Pieterson of UNB was third in 24:10, Dalhousie’s Russell Christie fourth in 24:39 and Lee McCarron of St. F.X. fifth with a time of 25:00.

The X-Men’s Brent Addison, Dan MacNeil and Robert Winslow, Patrick O’Grady of Memorial and Jean-Marc Doiron of Moncton completed the top 10.

With 21 points, StFX finished well ahead of UNB (75 points) and Dalhousie (78) in the team event.

There are no more meets scheduled for the next four weeks until the AUS championships, Oct. 25 in Moncton.