ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's and women's cross country teams competed in dual meets with Division I Cornell University Friday at the Cornell Opener.
 
Cortland's top women's finisher was Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) with a 10th-place time of 19 minutes, 44.9 seconds over 5,000 meters. Cornell's Mairead Clas won in 18:29.7. Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) placed 11th (19:46.0), followed by Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) in 12th (20:05.1), Jewel Jones (Long Beach) in 13th (20:31.2) and Gwenivere Connelly (Port Jefferson/Earl L. Vanermeulen) in 15th (20:38.3).
 
On the men's side, Brandon Mulholland (Syracuse/Westhill) was 16th overall, and 11th among collegiate entries, in 16:18.4 over 5,000 meters. Pierre Attiogbe of Cornell won in 15:28.1. Carter Naginey (Groton) finished in 21st place (16:30.5), Chris Jones (Riverhead) was 22nd (16:36.6), Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West) placed 24th (16:42.2) and Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) finished 25th (17:16.5).
 
Cornell won both team competitions by 15-50 scores.
 
Cortland returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the SUNYAC Preview Meet, hosted by Plattsburgh on the course that will also be used for the SUNYAC Championship races in early November.

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

This ended up being a pretty good test for us - in essence the race was a time trial for our athletes. Our first couple of groups up front had good opportunity to hang onto Cornell's second and third packs; and it was a good test of toughness for our whole team. For the most part we either showed a good level of toughness or we had a good chance to learn.

We have a good week of work ahead, finishing with the trip up to Plattsburgh next weekend to preview the course for the conference championships.