A number of college cross-country teams in the metro area enjoyed success in their opening meets of the fall season.
The University of Maryland women’s squad dominated and won the 11-team University of Delaware Invitational with a low of 22 points. Host Delaware was second with 35.
Maryland had six runners finish in the top 10, sweeping the first three spots on the 5,000-meter course at White Clay Creek State Park, east of Wilmington.
Winning the race was senior Rose Coats in 17 minutes, 31 seconds. The runner-up was junior Eva Rogers in 18:09 and sophomore Katie Dufko was third in 18:34.
Seventh for Maryland was freshman Kate Konyar in 18:55, with sophomore Maren Iski ninth in 19:06 and junior Jayla Atkinson 10th in 19:16.
Coats qualified for the NCAA championship race the past two seasons and was an all-Big Ten first-team performer last fall.
Rogers and Dutko also are top returners, along with Coats and Lucy Scothern.
Maryland also had the runners who finished 11th, 13th, 14th and 20th in its season opener, with junior Cayden Justice 11th, junior Annika Metzger 13th and sophomore Melina Johnston 14th. In the 20th spot was sophomore Rebecca Burgee.
Among other colleges and universities in the local area:
George Washington University: The George Washington University men’s and women’s teams each won the 16th Annual Galen Piper Cross Country Challenge.
Both squads dominated: The men scored 16 points to win by 51 points and the women scored 24 to win by 63.
The men’s team earned the top four positions in the 6,000-meter race and had its fifth runner place sixth.
The race winner was junior Charles Mbuthia in 18:45. Second was senior Brayden Bayek in 19:01, senior Joe Fahrney was third in 19:09, sophomore Otto Erhart was fourth in 19:15 and freshman Diego Eseverri was sixth in 19:20.
For the George Washington women, the 4,000-meter race champion was junior Hadley Mahoney in 14:16, with junior Claire Bohan third in 14:45 and junior Alexandra Otto fourth in 14:42. The women’s squad also had eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th-place finishers.
Eighth was senior Lola Dinneen in 15:07, senior Shannon Hieber was ninth in 15:09, senior Erin Wallwork was 10th in 15:12 and junior Amelia Ogawa 11th in 15:13.
Georgetown University: Finishing second in two races were the Georgetown University men’s and women’s teams at the Spider Alumni Open.
The College of William and Mary teams won each race, the men by one point over Georgetown (33 to 34) in the 6,000-meter event and the women by a few more (56 to 71) in a 4,000-meter race.
For the Georgetown men, senior Birhanu Harriman finished third in 18:26.0 with junior Luke Ondracek fourth in 18:26.1. Seventh was freshman Maxwell Friedrich in 18:37 with sophomore Quinn Parrish ninth in 18:39.
The Georgetown women were led by young runners, with freshmen placing third, fourth and 13th and sophomore Emma Bennett was sixth in 14:31. For the freshmen, third was Tess Harper in 14:21, fifth was Lauren Banovac in 14:28 and 13th was Liv Sherry in 14:51.
American University: Also at the Spider Alumni Open, the American University men’s team placed fourth in its race, with the women fifth in their event.
For the American men, junior Noah Smith was 13th in 18:50, sophomore Emmett Engelhardt 16th in 18:58 and freshman Marcus Valenzuela 17th in 18:59.
For the American women, freshman Anna Villavicencio placed ninth to lead the way in 14:49.
The Catholic University teams finished ninth (men) and 13th (women) at the event, with the Marymount University women 14th. The University of Mary Washington teams of Fredericksburg each placed 10th.
George Mason University: The George Mason University men won and the women were second at the Salisbury University Fall Classic.
The men scored a low of 19 points in victory and were led by race winner Alex DeRoussel, a graduate student who had a time of 24:51 in the 8,000-meter race.
Also for the Mason men, junior Tarek Benlamkaddem was second in 24:53.8. Next, senior Biruk Beardsley (25:05.7), sophomore Daniel Hayes (25:25.1) and freshman Kolbin Heberlig (25:43.5) finished fourth, sixth and ninth, respectively.
Leading the Mason women’s squad in the 6,000-meter run was graduate student Ailbhe Barnes in fourth (21:33.8). Graduate student Kara Mickelson and senior Sarah Clark were ninth in 22:00.2 and 10th in 22:00.3, respectively.
Howard University: The Howard University men’s and women’s teams each won their races at the Mount St. Mary’s Duals in Emmitsburg, Md.
Leading the men was individual winner Noah Douglas. The sophomore ran the 5,000-meter course in 15:58 with his freshman teammate Shareef Elfadil third in 16:08.
Also for the Howard men, junior Paul Robinson was sixth in 16:13, junior Sayid Shakur seventh in 16:15 and junior William Shepherd ninth in 16:21.
Leading the Howard women was runner-up finisher Mira Martin. The junior ran the 5,000-meter race in 19:05. Howard junior Ester Kirk was third in 19:13, with junior Chloe Poindexter fifth in 19:26 and sophomore Alexis Jones seventh in 19:33.
