On Sunday, October 16, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams partici­pated in grueling meets. The women’s squad traveled all the way to University Park, Pennsylvania to participate in the Penn State National, while the men’s team took part in the UAlbany Invitational in nearby Albany, New York. The women’s team placed a solid 14th out of a 29-team field, while the men placed an impressive 6th out of 21 teams.

Senior Elise DeRoo maintained her career-long consistency and rode a strong per­formance to a 13th-place individual finish. DeRoo tackled a challenging course under messy conditions in a quick 21:47. Senior teammate Chelsea Burns placed second for Colgate, finishing the course in a respectable 23:11. The time placed the veteran Burns in 67th place among individual runners. Surprising first year Megan Keane ran ex­tremely well at the meet, placing third for Colgate (84th overall) with a final time of 23:32. Senior teammates Kendall Lyons and Kelly Cattano rounded out the top-5 for the Raiders, finishing in 110th and 117th place, respectively. Lyons completed the gruel­ing track in 23:58, while Cattano was right on her heels, completing the race in 24:10. Based on total time, the Raiders would have finished in 11th place as a team. However, final standings are calculated by rewarding points based on the placements of each team’s top five runners, leaving Colgate (391) one point behind 13th-place rival Lehigh. The meet was won by West Virginia with 45 points. UConn placed second as a team with 70 points, while host Penn State finished third with 77 points.

The men’s team rode yet another incredible performance by junior Chris Johnson to a sixth place finish in the UAlbany Invitational. Johnson used a blazing fast start and an equally strong finish en route to a final time of 24:46.9, just 4.3 seconds out of first place. Johnson said that his strategy and performance in the meet reflected the manner in which he is approaching the upcoming Patriot League Championships.

“I got out hard the first mile to make sure I could handle a fast pace, since it is pos­sible that the Patriot League race will get out very hard,” Johnson said. “The main point of the race was to see if I could run a hard last mile after getting out to a faster pace… I was able to run it hard, so this was a big confidence booster looking forward to Patriots.”

Junior teammate Tim Phelps followed Johnson in second place for Colgate, com­pleting the race in 34th place with a time of 26:29.7. Sophomore Everett Stilley rounded out Colgate’s top three performers, finishing in 44th place overall with a time of 26:44.6. Host University of Albany took home first place, finishing the meet with 36 points. Binghamton (50 points) placed second as a team and was followed in third by Middlebury College (89 points).

Both teams will have a week off before they return to action for the Patriot League Championships on October 29.

“We will cut back on the volume and intensity of our training so that we will be ready to peak for the race in two weeks,” Johnson said.

The race will be held in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at Lehigh.

Contact Matt Flannery at [email protected].