ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland women's cross country team placed second out of three schools at the Cornell University Big Red Opener. The Division I host won with 22 points, with Cortland second with 41 points and Ithaca third with 70 points.
Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) was Cortland's best finisher among 36 runners on the 5,000-meter Moakley Course with a fifth-place time of 20 minutes, 0.8 seconds. Cornell's Huntley Buckingham won the race in 19:22.2.
Joining Peer in the top 10 were
Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) in sixth place in 20:02.9,
Alexa Doe (Adams/South Jefferson) in eighth place in 20:21.5, and
Briana Ostheller (Penfield) in 10th place in 20:32.5.
Four other runners finished in the top half of the field.
Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) finished in 12th place in 20:44.9, followed by
Makayla Renzo (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) in 13th place in 20:46.8 and
Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) in 14th place in 20:51.3.
Alessandra Finnerty-Vidal (Dobbs Ferry/Ardsley) crossed the finish line in 17th place in 21:33.1.
Cortland returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 19, at the University of Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational.
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Chad Dunham:
Another pleasant Friday evening meet for us - we're certainly happy with the nice weather and pleasant location provided to us by Cornell. They always run a good meet, and we're happy to spend time competing with our locals!
This weekend was a continued endeavor in pack running, where we had a few folks acting as Pacers to help pull others along. As the new folks get used to college training/competing, this low-key environment is helpful in the process! We saw plenty of folks commit to working well and moving as a group, which is always an incredibly pleasant sight! Today even included a few folks' first ever XC race, so that's also a fun sight!
The races will get longer (mostly) from here, and the team is still working hard. We're confident that the way they're operating will bring us another fun end to the Fall as we rise to meet those challenges!
