LOGAN TOWNSHIP, N.J. – The Cortland women's cross country team, ranked eighth in the Niagara Region, finished in fourth place out of 31 schools in the championship race of the Rowan University Border Battle.
 
Emory won the team title with 37 points, followed by Misericordia (101), Rowan (164), Cortland (197), Widener (212) and Johns Hopkins (229) in the top six.
 
Cortland's top seven finishers placed among the first 70 places in the 263-runner field. Adrienne Martin (Cincinnatus/Norwich) led the Red Dragons in 28th place in 22 minutes, 53.1 seconds over 6,000 meters. Emory's Brigid Hanley won the race in 21:27.2.
 
Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) hit the finish line in 35th place (23:06.0), followed by Khalifah Tracey (Greenville) in 41st place (23:16.3) and Emma Trefzger (Horseheads) in 48th place (23:27.8). Sydney Smith (Greenville) and Devin Reilly (Irvington) finished 50th (23:29.6) and 51st (23:30.3), respectively, and Cherise Mack (Johnson City) was 68th (23:42.7).
 
Two other Red Dragons finished in the top half of the field. Anika Parnell (Corinth) was 107th (24:23.7) and Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) placed 125th (24:39.1).
 
Deirdre Sullivan (Tappan/Tappan Zee) was Cortland's top performer in the open race with a runner-up time of 24:35.7 in a field of 81 runners.
 
Cortland's next competition will be the Cornell University John Reif Memorial Run on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:

This was a pretty great day! A big marker is that 36 members of the team ran a lifetime best today. We had some specific goals about how we wanted to approach this race and for the most part we accomplished them. Even though we were a bit limited by some injuries and illnesses, this was a very positive step forward.

Besides the win by Hunter Brignall (which set a new Cortland record for that course), firstyears Kevin Moser, Jack Bisbee, and Liam Boyd all joined the 'rookie' top ten times list. On the women's side, Adrienne Martin, Melissa Innocent, Khalifah Tracey, Emma Trefzger, Sydney Smith, Devin Reilly, and Cherise Mack all put new marks into the top 10 list. If you're keeping score at home, our entire top seven today are now in our all-time top 10!

Melissa now holds the Cortland rookie record for this course; Classmate Anne Barney is also now a member of the top ten list for firstyears.

For the second week in a row Deirdre Sullivan had a great race, setting a PR by nearly 2 minutes, and earning the runner-up spot in the open race. Kristin Ieva, working back from injury, also earned a top 10 spot in the women's open race.

For the guys, Rob Davidson ran a very tough final three miles, as did Josh Koeppe, to end up in the top 30 of the open race.

The team will be training on their own for a couple of days while the college is on break, but return for a quality session this Tuesday. About a third of the roster will race next Friday at Cornell, while the rest will be preparing for the upcoming championships season.