Gold Results
Open Results

ITHACA, N.Y. – The women's cross country team had a phenomenal day at Lehigh, claiming first place in the Paul Short Invitational Gold race and knocking off some of the top teams in the country in the process.
 
The Big Red win came thanks to 55 total points from its five scoring finishers, a number that was almost half of second-place William and Mary's 102 points. Cornell, just receiving votes in the USTFCCCA poll this week, finished well ahead of No. 4 Georgetown (third, 106 points) and No. 9 Villanova (seventh, 184 points). Overall, 40 teams and 360 runners took part.
 
Cornell had only won the Paul Short Invitational once in team history, back in 1998.
 
“The training has gone great, and it's really great to see them take a nice step in the nice direction running against nationally competitive teams,” cross country coach Artie Smith said.
 
Leading the way for the Big Red, like she did all of last year, was co-captain Katie Kellner. The senior completed the six-kilometer course in a time of 20:22 for second place overall. Dartmouth's Abbey D'Agostino won the race in 19:58.
 
Junior Rachel Sorna, who won the Rochester Invitational two weeks ago, was Cornell's second-place finisher and fourth overall in 20:29. Taking ninth overall and third on the Big Red roster was junior Emily Shearer in a time of 20:36. Cornell was the only team in the race with three runners in the top 10.
 
Junior Devin McMahon was the next Big Red runner to complete the race, claiming 13th place overall in 20:46. Rounding out the Big Red scoring was senior Katie Rosettie in 21:00, crossing the finish line just tenths of a second in front of freshman Caroline Kellner. Their times were both recorded as 21:00, but Rosettie took 27th overall while Kellner finished 28th.
 
The Big Red's final runner who factored into the points was senior co-captain Genna Hartung, whose 57th-place finish came with a time of 21:28.
 
“It's a great step, but the exciting thing is we've got a lot of steps still in front of us the remainder of the season, and I think they're going to continue to get better and better,” Smith said. “That's what they've been doing every week since they've been back in school. We're excited about today, and that means we're even more excited about looking ahead.”

Also running for Cornell in the Gold race was freshman Diana Iacone (64th, 21:43), sophomore Marianne Collard (85th, 21:56) and freshman Claire DeVoe (102nd, 22:06).

In the women's Open race, Cornell had nine finishers in the top 18 as well as the top five finishers who were representing a university. Unattached runners took the first four places, but Cornell senior Cara Costich was the fifth-place runner overall in a time of 22:01 for the six-kilometer course. Just behind her in 22:02 was sophomore Bori Tozser.

Two unattached runners followed them, but running strong to round out the top 12 places were sophomore Corey Dowe (ninth, 22:06), junior Dale Kinney (10th, 22:09) and freshman Ann Herman (12th, 22:11).

Freshmen Maggi Szpak (15th, 22:17) and Kristen Niedrach (16th, 22:18) were the first two in a four pack for Cornell. Sophomore Sydney Williams (17th, 22:21) and junior Elizabeth Simpson (18th, 22:23) were not far behind.

Senior co-captain Kelsey Karys (33rd, 22:47) and senior Suzana Markolovic (35th, 22:49) rounded out the Big Red's Open race, which was 293 athletes strong.

Cornell, with three consecutive team wins to start the year, continues its 2012 campaign at the Wisconsin Invitational and the Princeton Invitational next weekend.