The men’s and women’s cross-country teams hosted the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Big Spring High School in Newville, Pa. The #8 nationally-ranked men’s team dominated and came out on top, earning first place. The women’s team finished just ten points behind NYU ending up in second place. The meet consisted of two events, an 8K and a 4K for the men and a 6K and a 4K for the women.

In the long event, the men stole five of the top twenty spots out of all 188 runners. Greg Clark ’15 ran the race in 26:06 and came in fourth place. Nick Stender ’15 finished seconds behind and placed sixth. Seventh and eighth place went to Alex Strenta ’14 and Mark Weinhoffer ’15, respectively.

The short event consisted of a total of 139 runners and the Red Devils’ earned five of the top twenty spots again. Ryan Steinbock ’15 came in second place with a time of 12:08. Robert Sansever ’14 came in fifth place with a time of 12:19. Teammates Henry Mynatt ’14 and Joey Steadman ’17 arrived at the finish line just seconds later and took ninth and fifteenth place. The men finished second to NYU in the long even and second to Shippensburg in the short event, but, their overall score was the highest amongst all competing teams.

The women scored very well in the long event at the meet, placing third behind NYU and TCNJ. Claire Brawdy ’16 took fifth place with a time of 23:28. Sara Patterson ’14 followed closely behind, and received tenth place, completing the race in 23:28. Mary Thorne ’15 and Polly Terzian ’17 followed shortly after, taking twelfth and thirteenth place. Out of all 164 women competing in the 6K, the Red Devils received five of the top twenty spots.

In the short event, only Shippensburg University finished ahead of Dickinson. For the Red Devils, Emily Miller ’14 took ninth place with a score of 15:03. Sarah Rutkowski ’16, Mackenzie Shelgren ’16, and Rebecca Race ’16 earned spots in the top twenty runners.

The men’s and women’s cross-country teams have both had very strong starts to their seasons! Their next meet is this weekend, Saturday, Sept. 5. They will both be traveling to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa in hopes of coming home with another first place finish when they compete in the Paul Short Invitational.