The Colgate men’s and women’s cross country teams kicked off the 2016 season with a fifth place finish at the 19th Annual Harry Lang Invitational on Saturday, September 3. Colgate has hosted the invitational at the Harry Lang Cross Country Course since 1988.

The Raider men’s cross country team finished with 110 points in their 6,400 meter race. Head coach Luke Burdick commented on the difficult nature of the course.

“Our course is a true, traditional cross country course,” Burdick said. “Often times now, everyone wants to run on fast courses, flat tracks essentially that have grass on them. With our course you really get the sense of going through the trails, up over the big hills and around the rivers. It’s definitely a more traditional course and as a result, is much, much slower than what you would see at other courses, so there’s a little character there with our course.”

Senior Bobby Galante was Colgate’s top finisher with a time of 21:25.0 in 17th place overall. Followed by Galante was first-year John Abbott who finished in 19th at 21:34.1. Coach Burdick commented on the top two Raider finishers. 

“I was really happy how John Abbott got out today, ran pretty well,” Burdick said. “[I’m] really happy about Bobby coming back, he ended up being our one man today. The kind of leadership he’s had in the past and especially being a senior for us this year, he’s a guy we’re going to look to to continue those kind of performances.”

The Colgate women’s cross country team finished with 133 points in their 5,000 meter race. Colgate first-year Vicky Martinez finished first of the Raiders women’s cross country team with a time of 19:34.5, 21st overall. Coach Burdick commented on the women’s cross country team’s results.

“Initially I was devastated, then I found out the flags got changed and they ran a 5K, not a 4,800 meter race, so that made a lot more sense, and after realizing that I was very happy with the results today,” Burdick said. “One of the bright stars today I would say was Vicky Martinez, who’s a freshman for us, being our one girl, leading us to the finish and mixing it up with Albany and Syracuse girls, that’s always good to see.”

Colgate competes again in two weeks when they travel to Binghampton for the Binghampton Invitational in Vestal, New York.