Last Saturday, the Colgate men’s and women’s cross country teams had their second meet of the year at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Raiders finished in fourth place out of five teams in the men’s race and in fourth out of as many teams in the women’s competition.

The competing teams were Colgate, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Vermont, University of Maine and the University of Connecticut, all of which are at least five times larger than Colgate University.

The women’s squad was led by first-year Chelsea Burns, who finished sixth in the overall standings with a time of 18:55, 34 seconds behind the first-place runner from the University of Massachusetts. The Raiders placed two more runners in the top fifteen and one additional runner in the top twenty as senior Jessica Kielty finished 12th, sophomore Julie Tarallo finished 14th and first-year Kendall Lyons finished in 16th place. Sophomore Stacey Marion rounded out the top five for Colgate as she finished in 21st place, just two seconds behind the 20th place finisher from UMass.

Head Coach Laura Nardelli was satisfied with the team’s performance and looked hopeful for future events.

“Our women’s team took the pace out much faster than our last race, covering the first mile in less than six minutes,” Nardelli said. “Nearly everyone on the team looked very strong and was able to move up in place continually during the course of the race. We still have yet to race with our full squad, so as we bring injured and ill people back into the mix, results should continue to improve.”

Coach Nardelli hopes that the team will get better after every meet and be at full strength by the time the Patriot League Championships roll around towards the end of the season.

The men’s squad showed improvement over their last race, as their two top finishers broke their personal bests in their respective events. Sophomore Ed Sheridan led Colgate with a fourth place finish with a time of 25:47, only six seconds behind the first place finisher from UMass. The Raiders had one more top fifteen finisher in sophomore Griffith Cannon, who finished 12th with a time of 26:36. Junior Lyle Tolli finished 16th, rounding out the Raiders that finished in the top 20.

The other two members of Colgate’s top five were sophomore Grant Stauffer and first-year Andrew Gorman. Stauffer finished in the 28th place overall with a time of 27:36.

Head Coach Arthur McKinnon revealed what he believes was the key to Sheridan’s and Cannon’s succes, and his hopes for the rest of his runners.

“Sophomores Ed Sheridan and Griffin Cannon improvements are in a large part due to their running 80 miles a week; a significant increase in comparison to last year,” McKinnon said. “The other runners on the team are working on increasing their mileage levels in order to close the gap between our third and seventh runners.”

Both the men and women will head to Lehigh for their next meets, which will take place on Friday.