BETHLEHEM, PA. – Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) posted a top-40 finish in a field of 422 runners to lead the Cortland women's cross country team in the White Division of the Lehigh University Paul Short Run.
 
Innocent finished in 36th place in 22 minutes, 0.4 seconds over 6,000 meters. RPI's Jules Bleskoski won the race in 20:20.8.
 
Cortland placed 28th out of 45 teams in the final team standings. The Red Dragons finished with a team score of 790 points. NYU was the champion with 55 points and Carnegie Mellon was second with 157 points.
 
Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) finished in the top 100 of the race in 22:45.3. Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) was 230th in 23:50.3 and Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) was 246th in 23:59.7.
 
Cortland's next five finishers crossed the line with 20 seconds of each other. Gwenivere Connelly (Port Jefferson/Earl L. Vandermeulen) was 276th (24:24.5) and Bri Ostheller (Penfield) finished 280th (24:29.1). Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) placed 293rd (24:39.1), MaryJane Politi (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) finished 296th (24:40.5) and Mia McClaine (Albany/Colonie) was 301st (24:44.1).
 
Abigail Tessier (Delhi/Delaware Academy) was Cortland's top finisher in the Open Division race, placing 325th out of 462 runners in 25:33.1.
 
Cortland returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 11, at the Hamilton College Invitational.

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

Today was an interesting day! There was a lot that happened at one of the largest cross country meets in the nation - and the size of the meet definitely was something new to experience for many of our folks. It isn't every day that you run in a race with 400 or 500 other runners!

For the Lady Red Dragons, Abi Tessier led us off with a strong effort in the 'open' race. She ran controlled early, and really attacked the third uphill mile in a very impressive fashion to lead the squad entered in that race. Kudos also to fellow firstyear Cassidy Wendt who made her collegiate debut with a good effort in what was the largest race she has ever run in!

For the team entered in the 'white' division, Melissa Innocent had a stellar run, entering our all-time top ten list for the course. That's quite an achievement! Alexa Wolcott, Anne Barney, and Bri Ostheller also had very strong efforts on the day. While we didn't quite get the team results we wanted, we feel very good that we just made some small errors here and there; the exciting thing is that the team is able to recognize these on their own and know how to correct things. That's a great place to be in!

The men's 'open' race was led by the efforts of sophomore Kyle Friedel who ran an excellent race; from the perspective of the coaches he was a solid leader out there helping to pull Foster's Jon Slick and Landon Fracasse to strong performances. Senior Anthony Cawley came through with what was probably the best race of his career, which is quite exciting!

In the 'white' division, it was a bit strange. For the most part we didn't race great, but we also didn't race poorly. We were generally OK with how we ran (I guess we are following the Goldilocks principle?) - a lot of places for improvement but not many places where things were bad. As with the ladies team, the gentlemen have a solid understanding of how to move forward! I will note that sophomores Hunter Rautenstrauch and Vinny Smaldone both had very strong performances today, and deserve to be commended for them!

The team will scatter for home as we can meet our training goals for the next few days on their own over October break; we'll be making the trip to southern New Jersey in two weeks for an important 'ranking' meet hosted by Rowan University!