Sophomores Alex Benway (Queensbury, NY) and Maureen Hill (Latham, NY) were the top runners for the Clarkson University Cross Country teams at the highly competitive 2009 Saratoga Invitational hosted by Rensselaer on Saturday afternoon.

 

Benway paced the Golden Knight men in the 8k race, placing 26th overall with a time of 27:22.68. Clarkson placed seventh out of 13 teams in the men’s event with 78 points. St. Lawrence, led by Daniel Ramsey’s first place time of 25:21.99, won the team title with 29 points.

 

Hill was the lead runner for the Clarkson women, finishing 54th overall with a time of 20:09.40 over the 5k course. The Golden Knight women finished 11th out of 13 teams with 81 points. Wendy Palvus of St. Lawrence won the individual crown with a

time of 17:24.12, leading the Saints to the team title.

 

Sophomore Matt Gammariello (Webster, NY) was the only other runner for the Clarkson men to place among the top 50, finishing 46th (28:13.60). Rounding out the Golden Knights’ top five finishers in the men’s race were senior Andrew Nadeau (Irondequoit, NY) in 55th (28:28.58), sophomore Neal Campbell (Queensbury, NY) in 69th (28:50.93) and freshman Russ Seidel (Binghamton, NY) in 92nd (29:3312).

 

Rounding out the Clarkson women top five runners were sophomore Bethann Parmelee (Waverly, NY) in 90th (21:18.46), freshman Rachel Bachman (Queensbury, NY) in 96th (21:33.59), freshman Jessica Hernandez (Owego, NY) in 106th (22:00.87) and junior Alicia Perras (Portsmouth, NY) in 110th (22:29.68).

The following individual runners have made the Clarkson top seven and will represent the University at the NCAA Regional meet at Letchworth Park near Geneseo, NY on Nov. 14th.