Colgate women’s cross country experienced its own kind of stampede this weekend, competing at the University at Buffalo Stampede Invitational, and the team certainly ran with all the energy of a charging buffalo en route to an outstanding third-place finish overall out of the 11 teams that competed in the tournament.

Junior Elizabeth Kennedy keyed Colgate’s third-place finish, two weeks after earning the title of Patriot League Female Runner of the Week on September 12 due to a sterling performance in the Binghamton Invitational. Last weekend Kennedy showcased another fantastic performance, finishing with the sixth-best individual time overall. Her time of 19:03 left her just 8 seconds short of a top-five finish. Colgate boasted another top-15 finisher in the event, senior Liz Crowley, who finished 12th with a time of 19:27. The third-best Colgate finisher was sophomore Kristen Kiraly, who finished a respectable 21st overall.

Cornell won the event and also boasted the top individual runner in the event, Toni-Lynn Salucci. The Big Red runners also took second place and finished with four runners finish in the top five, and seven finishers in the top 10. The best individual finisher not from Cornell was Mary Veith from the University at Buffalo, the host school. A distant second in the overall standings was Central Michigan University, who finished 40 points behind Cornell. Colgate notched third place by finishing a mere 7 points behind Central Michigan. The University of Buffalo and Niagara University rounded out the top five finishers of the race, respectively.

After its impressive finish, the women’s cross country team will be competing closer to home in its next event, jogging over to nearby Hamilton College for the Hamilton Invitational on October 7th at 11:00 a.m. Look for another strong performance from Kennedy as the Raiders race for first.