BENNINGTON, Vt. – Southern Vermont Cross Country hosted the annual Mountaineer Invitational on Saturday, challenging runners throughout the day along its Mount Anthony-based course. The SVC women's team was third overall, while the SUNY Canton group won the meet.
The Mountaineers had two finishers in the top-ten, being led by freshman Haley Omasta (Danbury, Conn.) who ran her third 24:50 race in as many 5K's this year; she finished seventh in the 28-runner field. Freshman Alice Lala (Biddesford, Maine) was not far behind as she came in eighth with a 25:29.
SUNY Canton swept the top-three spots with Megan Mydosh (Warwick, N.Y.) leading all runners with a time of 22:14.
Mountaineer Zabonia Leigh (Schenectady, N.Y.) took nearly four minutes off her personal-best time to finish fourth for SVC with a 33:40, following senior captain Loni Masiero (Wallkill, N.Y.) who came in at 27:27.
Coach Maria Stuber was pleased with the showing, saying, "Our women's team is developing very fast. We now have a core group of three that can finish high on the results, and the rest have been improving every week."
Sophomore Shante Ramires (Rutland, Vt.) finished fifth, just a hair behind Leigh at 33:40. Three other Mountaineers were not far behind. "I'm waiting to see who's going to step it up to be in our top five at conference," said Stuber. "Any time you have competition for your 4th and 5th spot is a really good thing."
The weather made for a beautiful day of running on the course laid about Mount Anthony during the College's Homecoming Weekend. Stuber thanks all the students and staff who volunteered to make the event so successful. "Today was a great reminder that SVC is a great place to be either a student-athlete or coach."
The Mountaineers will now prepare for the Vermont State Championships at Lyndon State College next Saturday. The women's race is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.