Meet Results

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (October 31, 2009) -- Despite resting a number of last week's top performers, the Vassar College women's cross-country team raced to an impressive fifth place finish today at the RPI Invitational. For the second straight week, freshman Kristine Olson had a solid race for Vassar, this time leading the team and placing 28th. Olson finished in 19:33, an 11 second improvement over last week, largely attributable to a surge after the second mile as the course flattened out.

The six remaining Vassar runners who factored into the team score all finished within 14 seconds of each other. Leading that pack was sophomore Hannah Ziobrowski, placing 40th in 19:56. Also breaking under 20 minutes and finishing directly behind Ziobrowski was senior Alyssa Charney, who placed 41st in 19:58. Sophomore Melissa McClung was five seconds behind in 20:03, good enough for 44th place. Rounding out the scoring five was junior Rebecca Valencia, placing 48th in 20:05.

Junior Jenica Law placed 6th on the team and 50th overall in a time of 20:07, and senior Nina Huang placed 56th overall in 20:10.

Working well in a pack and finishing in under 21 minutes were sophomore Erin Lefkowitz (71st, 20:42), junior Brittany Davis (72nd, 20:47) and senior Leslie Hamilton, who recovered from an early fall to finish 75th in 20:51.

Also competing for Vassar were freshman Arial Shogren (95th, 21:21), freshman Emily Crnic (100th, 21:43), freshman Emily Sufrin (103rd, 21:54), senior Kathleen Dwyer (104th, 21:56), and freshman Stephanie Malek (116th, 22:45).

“To place fifth even while sitting out four of our top women is a great accomplishment for us, and likely our 6th fastest cumulative time, competitive what we've done in previous years with a top seven. It's great to see Kristine and Hannah blossom here, especially since Hannah had an injury that hampered her training and racing for the first half of the season,” said Head Coach James McCowan.

“Our senior women have provided great leadership and shown dedication over the last four years, and it's been a pleasure to work with Kathleen (Dwyer), Leslie (Hamilton), Nina (Huang), and Alyssa (Charney). Finally, Arial (Shogren) had a great race today, and has shown a real desire to improve throughout the year.”

St. Lawrence's Wendy Pavlus won the race in 17:24, and with 4 runners in the top five, St. Lawrence took the team title with 21 points.
Today's race concludes the regular season for the Brewers. A seven runner team will compete next Saturday at the ECAC Championships, hosted by Williams College.