GENESEO, N.Y. --- Led by four top-10 individual finishes, the No. 6-ranked Carleton College women's cross country program won the Mike Woods invitational. The 23-team field included six nationally-ranked programs along with eight additional regionally-ranked squads.
 
Carleton scored a total of 50 points, with No. 4-ranked SUNY-Geneseo taking second place at 60 points. The third-place finisher was No. 15-ranked Lynchburg with a final tally of 82 points, and No. 8-ranked Johns Hopkins came in fourth place with a score of 103. No. 25 Wittenberg finished fifth (114), while No. 31 Carnegie Mellon took sixth (197).

"I am so proud of what this team accomplished today," said Carleton head coach Donna Ricks. "We went into this meet knowing it was a high-caliber race. Our goal was to finish in the top three. Overall, the team executed a beautiful race and competed with confidence, taking advantage of a flat, fast course producing some great finish times."
 
The Knights were fourth as a team at the 1-kilometer mark, sat second at the race's mid-point, and had taken over first place by the time 5K splits were collected.
 
Phoebe Ward started off Carleton's hot day, finishing fifth overall with a time of 21:06.8. Directly after her came Hannah Preisser, placing sixth overall with a time of 21:09.5. Then Sophie McManus was right behind her teammates, crossing the line in seventh place with a time of 21:23.4.
 
Helen Cross was the next scorer for the Knights, coming in 10th place overall with a time of 21:32.8. The final scorer for Carleton was Aliya Larsen, coming in 22th place with a time of 21:52.8.

Mary Blanchard (35th at 22:21.3) and Libby Rowland (60th at 22:46.0) were the next best finishers for Carleton in the competitive field of 300 runners.  
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will host the MIAC Cross Country Championships at the Bill Huyck Championship Course on Saturday, October 28. The starting gun is set to go off at 12:00 p.m.