Women’s Cross Country Takes the Bronze

Coming off an impressive home opening meet at the Harry Lang Invitational, the women’s cross-country team kept its momentum going with some stellar performances at the Binghamton Invitational. For the second week in a row, first-year runner Stacey Marion led the Raiders, finishing in third-place with a time of 18:57, only a single second behind the first and second place runners. Marion managed to break up a dominant quartet from Columbia, who took first, second, fourth and fifth. Senior Elizabeth Kennedy was not far behind Marion, posting a fast time of 19:08 and securing seventh place. Kennedy’s time was 10 seconds faster than last season.

“We were running against a couple of very good teams,” assistant coach Bernie Empie said. “Both Columbia and Syracuse are ranked in the Top-10 of our conference. Our top kids did a nice job of trying to break up their runners.”

In support of Marion and Kennedy was sophomore Emily Oliver, who lowered her time from last season by an amazing two minutes and seven seconds. She finished 17th with a time of 19:55. Meanwhile, junior Jessica Kielty and sophomore Jennifer Bradley were not far behind, placing 21st and 22nd respectively. Both shaved a considerable amount from last season’s times. Rounding out the scoring for Colgate was junior Kristen Kiraly, who placed 25th with a time of 20:20. Colgate scored 64 points in the meet, behind Columbia’s 21 and Syracuse’s 47, although the Raiders two first runners crossed the finish line before Syracuse’s top two.

“At this point, the name of the game is progressing as a group and keeping everyone healthy,” Empie said.

The team will attempt to do just that through hard work and a little bit of rest in the following weeks, as the Raiders will take a break from racing this coming weekend and prepare for the Buffalo Invitational on September 22. Colgate is well on pace to fulfilling its predicted third place finish at the Patriot League Championships, although the season is still in its early stages.

“We are definitely talented enough to place third at the Patriot League Championships,” Empie said. “It’s all going to depend on showing up with the squad that we have now. We can’t afford to lose anybody to injury.”