Women's Cross Country | 9/6/2014 1:32:00 PM

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OSWEGO, NY - The RIT women's cross country team enjoyed perhaps its best ever finish in program history, with three runners placing in the top-five and five in the top-10, as the squad rolled to victory on Saturday morning at the SUNY Oswego Cross Country Invitational. The Tigers finished with 28 team points, besting regionally-ranked SUNY Cortland, who placed second with 54 points, and nationally-ranked No. 22 Ithaca, who was third with 69 points.

Sophomore Emma Jones (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta), RIT's first rookie to earn All-Region honors in 2013, picked up right where she left off last season, defeating 188 other runners over the 5,000-meter race in a course record time of 18:24.5. She defeated Catherine Knox of Rochester in a stirring finish by nine tenths of a second. She enjoyed a mile rate of 5:56. Those two runners were nearly 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Senior Stephanie Milici (Rochester, NY/Greece Odyssey), who enjoyed a breakout outdoor track and field season in 2014, finished third overall in a time of 18:53.7, her best finish at RIT. Classmate Kaylin Beiter (Lima, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima), a 2013 All-Liberty League second team selection, was fifth in 19:00.9, seven seconds behind Milici.

Juniors Becky Greiner (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta) and Kristine Reed (Walton, NY/Walton) were ninth and tenth, respectively, in times of 19:18.3 and 19:25.8. Freshmen Faith Gruver (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena), Martine Bosch (Endwell, NY/Maine-Endwell), and Keira Higgins (Schenevus, NY/Milford) made excellent collegiate debuts, each finishing in the top-50.

I am very proud of the effort our ladies put in today," said RIT head coach Dave Stevens. "Our entire roster put in a great summer of training and today we got a glimpse of what hard work and commitment from everyone can do. It's still very early in the season, but it feels very good to beat such a talented field of runners."

RIT last won a meet on Sept. 21, 2013 at the Highlander Invitational hosted by Houghton College.
 
RIT will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. for the University of Rochester Invitational at Genesee Valley State Park.