ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Cortland had eight runners finish in the top 105 out of 256 competitors and the Red Dragons earned an eighth-place finish out of 22 schools at the Roberts Wesleyan Harry F. Anderson Women's Cross Country Invitational.
 
Cortland posted a team score of 229 points, 50 better than Division II St. Michael's. Division I Cornell won the team crown with 18 points and three Division II teams finished in the top seven.
 
Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) finished 39th overall and was the ninth Division III finisher in 19 minutes, 26.1 seconds over 5,000 meters. Cornell's Augustine Haquet won in 17:12.5.
 
Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) finished 58th in 19:55.7, with Brooke Keitel (Manorville/Eastport-South Manor) right behind her in 59th place in 19:56.5. Kristin Ieva (North Babylon) placed 61st in 19:58.1 and Devin Reilly (Irvington) rounded out the top five in 70th place (20:06.8).
 
Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) crossed the finish line 82nd (20:21.1) and Julia Benton (Addison) was 85th (20:23.3). Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) placed 105th in 20:49.2.

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

What a fun and successful day we had in Rochester!
 
Of course not everything went perfectly, but it was an awfully good performance by the Red Dragons! One of the things we try to do on these longer trips is review each person's race while we are on the way home. It's nice to be able to chat while looking at the splits we took out on the course to identify what went well, as well as what could be improved.
 
I always 'joke' that when we race well, these conversations are pretty easy. Showing people the data that proves how well they did is always a pleasant experience, and that is mostly what the conversations were like on the drive home! Where they weren't the focus was on how to do better and what to correct – we didn't have many 'bad' decisions today, just a few that could have been done in a better way.
 
I'd like to point out that our 1-5 spread on the men's side was only 36 seconds, and also commend Hunter Rautenstrauch on having one of the fastest closing miles today, as he ran it in 5:19! That was a very impressive finish by him!
 
The women's team is doing an excellent job of working together in groups to the point that it is a real point of pride right now; individually Anne Barney had a tremendous closing mile of 6:18! I'll also commend Melissa Innocent for earning a spot in our all-time top 10 list for the course, and Brooke Keitel for earning a spot in the top 10 list for firstyear student-athletes.
 
Next Saturday is the Paul Short Run at LeHigh University – one of the premiere collegiate cross country races in the nation. We're looking forward to putting it on the line against some of the best programs across the NCAA.