NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Wellesley College cross country team finished third in the varsity race and second in the sub-varsity race of the 2012 Shriners Invitational, hosted by UMass-Dartmouth.
Wellesley was strong in both of the 5k races, taking third of 38 scoring teams in the varsity and finishing second among 19 scoring teams in the sub-varsity race. In the varsity race, the Blue placed behind only MIT and Rowan, while in the sub-varsity race, Wellesley finished behind only MIT.
In varsity action, senior Ada Smith paced the Blue with a personal best time of 19:04.78, ranking her 22nd overall in the 293-runner field. Senior Sara Putterman and sophomore Taylor Bickford, who clocked in at 19:19.54 and 19:23.30, finished 33rd and 38th respectively in personal best times. Rounding out the varsity scoring, senior Cristina Lucas took 51st overall in 19:47.98, while junior Margaret Wehner ran a 19:52.59 to finish 61st.
Other varsity finishers included Doris Berman (20:28.40), Jane Lodwick (20:35.67) and Skye Roberts (20:41.04).
In the sub-varsity race, the Blue were led by first-years Priyanka Fouda (19:05.89) and Victoria Lee (19:06.40). Fouda was making her collegiate debut, and finished 5th overall in the 215-runner field, while Lee backed up a strong performance at last week's Smith Invitational, with a sixth place finish today.
First-years Alessandra Gavin (19:37.59) and Sharon Ng (19:44.10) were the next Wellesley runners across the line, finishing in 13th and 15th places. Rounding out the scorers for the Blue sub-varsity runners, first-year Carolyn Chelius took 27th place in 20:42.43.
Sophomore Alexandra Dunn (20:59.55) and senior Mina Juhn (21:07.99) finished as the Blue's sixth and seventh runners in the sub-varsity field, placing 36th and 45th overall.
Wellesley cross country is back in action on September 22nd, traveling to Williams College to compete in the Purple Valley Classic.
