Sanderson Leads No. 6 Women's Cross Country at Season Opening Maribel Sanchez Souther Invitational

HANOVER, N.H. — The No. 6 ranked MIT women's cross country team opened the season with a second place finish on Saturday at the 6k Maribel Sanchez Souther Invitational. Meet host and Division I Dartmouth College defeat the Engineers by five points in the team standings.

THE BASICS:

Team Scores: Dartmouth (25), MIT (30), Vermont (85), Colby-Sawyer (120)
Top-Finisher: Dartmouth's Madeleine Locher (Ventura, Calif.) in 21:52.90

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Junior Kate Sanderson (West Hartford, Conn.) was the top MIT finisher in 22:05.10, finishing 12.20 seconds off the pace set by Locher. Classmate Lexi Fernandez (Stevenson Ranch, Calif.) finished fourth for MIT with a time of 22:11.50.
Junior Rujuta Sane (Chandler, Ariz.), sophomore Liv Girand (New York, N.Y.) and senior Christina Crow (Mercer Island, Wash.) finished 7-8-9 for MIT, crossing the line within four seconds of each other. Sane was seventh in 22:34.00, followed by Girand in eighth (22:35.70) and Crow in ninth (22:37.80).
First year Ava Hartman (New Orleans, La.) finished 11th overall and sixth for the Engineers. Hartman recorded a time of 22:51.50 in her collegiate debut. Sophomore Erin Hovendon (Laurel Park, N.C.) completed MIT's top-seven with a 13th place finish in 23:06.70.
Additionally for MIT, first year Kate Friedman (Greenwich, Conn.) was 14th in 23:09.30, sophomore Megan Diulus (Akron, Ohio) was 16th in 23:14.10, while classmates Heather Jensen (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Jessica Meza (Columbus, Ind.) finished 17th (23:14.50) and 28th (24:12.10), respectively. Graduate student Maya Florentine Walcher (Graz, Austria) took 35th in 24:24.20 and rookie Sarah Hopp (Stevens Point, Wis.) was 36th in 24:26.40.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

The top-18 finishers in the race were from either MIT or Dartmouth.
MIT also finished second to the Big Green last season, finishing with 44 points to Dartmouth's 16.
Locher was the top finisher in the race for the second consecutive year.

UP NEXT:

MIT will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana for the DIII Pre-National Meet, hosted by Rose Hulman on Friday, October 4. The Engineers will also compete at the Bates Invitational on Saturday, October 5.

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