No. 1 Women's Cross Country Wins Conn College Invitational

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- With eleven ranked teams on the course, the No. 1 ranked MIT women's cross country team showed off its team depth on Saturday at the Connecticut College Invitational, winning the 6k women's Blue Race and finishing second in the 6k women's White Race.

The Blue Race featured the top qualifiers from each of the competing schools. MIT's top five in the Blue Race finished with a total time of 1:48:12 and an average time of 21:38, paced by junior Lexi Fernandez (Stevenson Ranch, Calif.), who finished tenth in 21:25.30.

THE BASICS:

Top-Five Team Scores:
- Blue Race: 1. MIT (83); 2. NYU (101); 3. Williams (106); 4. Washington and Lee (189); 5. Amherst (211)
- White Race: 1. Williams (30); 2. MIT (65); 3. Amherst (77); 4. NYU (112); 5. Middlebury (112)
Top Finisher:
- Blue Race: Audrey Maclean of Middlebury in 20:44.60
- White Race: Kate Friedman of MIT in 22:10.70.
Top MIT Finisher:
- Blue Race: Lexi Fernandez in 21:25.30 (10th)
- White Race: Friedman in 22:10.70 (1st)

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Fernandez was the only MIT finisher in the top ten, but the Engineers totaled three in the top 20 and all five scoring runners inside the top 25 to win the Blue Race.
Sophomore Liv Girand (New York, N.Y.) was 13th in 21:34.0, with senior Christina Crow (Mercer Island, Wash.) not far behind her teammate in 16th place with a time of 21:36.8.
Junior Rujuta Sane (Chandler, Ariz.) and sophomore Heather Jensen (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) were the final two MIT scoring runners. Sane posted a time of 21:46.2 to take 21st and Jensen was 23rd in 21:49.9.
Junior Kate Sanderson (West Hartford, Conn.), first year Ava Hartman (New Orleans, La.) and sophomore Megan Diulus (Akron, Ohio) closed out MIT's team in the Blue Race. Sanderson was 27th in 21:54.60, Hartman was 36th in 22:03.70 and Diulus was 86th in 22:50.60.
In the White Race, first year Kate Friedman (Greenwich, Conn.) paced the field as MIT finished with three runners in the top ten. Graduate student Gillian Roeder (Delmar, N.Y.) was fourth in 22:19.10 and sophomore Erin Hovendon (Laurel Park, N.C.) was seventh in 22:26.90.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

All five MIT scoring runners and Hartman posted collegiate personal best times in the Blue Race.
Fernandez finished tenth in the individual standings for the second consecutive race, following her finish at DIII Pre-Nationals.
Friedman's winning time in the White Race dropped her collegiate PR for the third consecutive race.

UP NEXT:

MIT will head to Wellesley College and the 2024 NEWMAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, November 2. The Championship race is scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM.

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