Last Saturday, the Colgate men’s and women’s cross country teams had their first meets of the season at home when they hosted the Harry Lang Invitational, in which seven different schools participated. Both squads finished in second place behind regional powerhouse Syracuse University.

In the women’s race, in which they ran two and three quarters of a mile, Syracuse got the first three spots, while Colgate first-year Chelsea Burns led the Raiders by finishing fourth overall. First-years Elise DeRoo and Kendall Lyons were second and third for Colgate and finished fifth and seventh overall. In total, the lady Raiders placed five runners in the top ten of the competition.

The fact that the women’s cross country squad had three first-years in the top ten of the race, including one among the top five, demonstrates that the team is going to become even better as the season moves on.

“It was just an opener for us. It was a chance to see how our athletes were after the preseason. We will need to keep conditioning and for the freshmen to keep gaining experience to keep improving,” Head Coach Laura Nardelli said.

The team practices for three hours every afternoon, which means that they will have plenty of time for improvement. The team’s next meet will be at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on the 20th.

The Colgate men fared just as well, which is impressive considering that senior captain Emmett Weatherford was not able to participate in last Saturday’s race due to a possible ligament strain. The top Colgate finisher was junior Lyle Tolli, who finished fourth overall in a 6,000 meter race. He was the only non-Syracuse runner to place in the top five. One other Colgate Raider, sophomore Ed Sheridan, placed in the top ten. Sheridan finished in the sixth position.

“We weren’t ready to go as fast as Syracuse took it out, but we ran the way I expected us to. The challenge now is to get our next group to cut the gap with our top two runners,” Head Coach Arthur McKinnon said.

Of the top eight in Colgate’s personal rankings, one was a junior, three were sophomores and four were first-year students. That indicates that the team has enough depth to keep improving and become a strong contender for years to come. In regards to the Patriot League, Coach McKinnon said that it will be a tough year, and that they will be facing a tough competition each time they run.

“Finishing fifth behind Army, American, Navy and Bucknell would feel like winning the Patriot League Championships, due to the resources those programs have. Our goal is to finish fifth in the league, above the sixth place picked by the league’s coaches in the preseason poll.” Coach McKinnon declared.

There will be a total of 96 athletes competing in the Patriot League Championships in November and the Colgate men’s cross country squad’s goal is to put at least one runner in the top ten, two in the top twenty and so on.

The team’s next meet will also be at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Saturday, September 20.