ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Behind the strength of six top-40 finishes, the Cortland women's cross country team earned a fourth-place showing out of 15 teams at the Harry F. Anderson Invitational, hosted by Roberts Wesleyan University.
 
Cortland and RIT actually tied for the third-best score with 113 points each. RIT officially finished third and Cortland was fourth via a tiebreaker comparing the finish of the five scoring runners for each team (first RIT vs. first Cortland, second RIT vs. second RIT, etc.). RIT won three of those five matchups. Geneseo won the team crown with 41 points and Roberts Wesleyan was second with 68.
 
Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) was Cortland's top finisher, crossing the line 11th out of 183 runners in 18 minutes, 55.0 seconds over 5,000 meters, officially just ahead of teammate Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) in 12th place in 18:55.5. Rachel Horner-Richardson of the host school won in 18:11.0.
 
Jewel Jones (Long Beach) placed 26th in 19:30.4 and Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) was 33rd in 19:31.1. Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) was 36th in 19:42.9 and Gwenivere Connelly (Port Jefferson/Earl L. Vandermeulen) finished 40th in 19:52.0.
 
Five other Red Dragons earned a spot in the top half of the field. Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) finished 64th (20:24.0), MaryJane Politi (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) was 71st (20:30.5) and Bri Ostheller (Penfield) finished 75th (20:33.2). Mia McClaine (Albany/Colonie) hit the finish line in 76th place (20:35.2) and Abigail Tessier (Delhi/Delaware Academy) finished 91st (21:13.9).
 
Cortland returns to action on Friday at the Lehigh University Paul Short Run.

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

It was great to get back on the course today; the team came through with some strong efforts!
 
Both squads struggled a bit finding how to run pace through the first mile. While often this is an issue of getting out too fast, today we were out pretty much right where we wanted to be at 400 meters, but lost a bit of urgency to be where we needed to be at the mile. This was our first 'large' invitational of the year, so that definitely made it a good learning opportunity for us. We're quite pleased with how strong the responses were once the squads saw that they were a bit behind at the mile, and how well they maintained those efforts through the end of the race. That type of effort is really pleasing to see, and has a good potential payoff for us come November.
 
We had a very nice youth movement for both teams as Chris Jones, Declan Butler, and Jack Hallahan all entered our all-time list on this course for firstyear men, while Gwen Connelly entered the firstyear women's top 10 list. Melissa Innocent and Alexa Wolcott both earned spots on the women's all-time top 10 list for this course, which is pretty exciting!
 
It's a short week as we head down to the prestigious Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University, with action taking place all day on Friday, October 3rd.