Sept. 11, 2004

The George Mason cross country teams opened the season on Saturday at the Towson Invitational and the women's team received strong performances by some first-year student-athletes while the men's team was paced by some veterans.

A pair of freshmen scored for the Patriots with Melissa Ferry finishing 33rd overall and Alicia York finishing 64th overall. They were the second and fouth finishers for the Patriots, respectively, with times of 20:15 and 21:33. Ryann Holmes, Sara Hines and Julia Gaudet were the teams first, third and fifth-place finishers, respectively, with times of 20:10, 20:29 and 21:55. They were 30th, 37th and 75th overall.

Also running for the Patriots were Meghan Millar, Erika Woodworth and Jessica Young.

Junior Dennis Moriarity led the men's team, finished 36th overall with a time of 28 minutes, 15 seconds. Senior Ricardo Cunningham was second on the team, crossing the line in 74th, with a time of 30:07. Senior Ben Sommers was the third Patriot finisher, running in 31:34. He was the 92nd runner across the line. First-year runners Charles Bowles and Pail Gilbride were 96th and 112th, respectively in times of 32:07 and 36:27. As a team, the men were 10th of 14 teams.

The men's and women's cross country teams will return to action next weekend when they head to Harrisonburg, Va. for the James Madison Invitational.