Mason's men's and women's cross country teams raced for the second time this year at the Delaware Invitational at White Clay Creek Park near the campus of University of Delaware.  The men's team placed second overall, just behind University of Mississippi and were able to place the top two racers in the overall standings.  The women's team finished third, behind University of Mississippi and University of Delaware respectively.

Senior Robert Reynolds finished first overall in the race today for the men with a time of 25:45.04, finishing just before his teammate, sophomore Michael Conway, who finished second overall with a time of 25:53.63.

"In general, I was pleased with the performance today," said Head Coach Andrew Gerard.  "Rob came on strongly after a conservative start, while Mike led most of the time and, once Rob came up, they worked together and broke him off pretty effectively. "

Along with placing the top two runners overall, the Mason men also finished with six more runners in the top 20.  Senior Andrew McGreal and freshman Alex Levine finished ninth and tenth in the race with times of 26:50.98 and 26:54.68 respectively, while junior Jason Hartman (13^th), freshman James Luehrs (14^th), sophomore David Rushing (18^th) and fellow sophomore Kieran Hennessy (19^th) rounded out Mason's top 20 finishers.

"The rest of the guys got out a bit too conservatively but that is the reality of this being their first race and having a bit of rust. They didn't panic and moved forward strongly," reflected Gerard.

For the women, junior Rochelle Sceats once again led the charge for Mason with her eighth place finish and a time of 23:23.65.  However, University of Mississippi dominated the race by placing runners in the top six overall spots.

"Today we weren't as strong up front as we were the last time we raced so that hurt us a little bit in the team score," said Associate Head Coach Sita Waru-Ewell.  "We did have some individuals such as senior Nao Ma (13^th overall with a time of 23:59.50), freshman Peyton Lowe (14^th overall with a time of 24:08.39) and senior Sandy Castro (19^th overall with a time of 24:21.48) step up and have solid races."

As Mason moves closer to CAA and Regional Championship races at the end of the year, Coach Gerard and Coach Ewell will look to have their top racers rise to the top.  "With almost everyone now having raced, we'll look to put both crews together for our home meet in two weeks and see everyone at the same time," concluded Gerard.

The men and women will both race again in two weeks on Saturday, October 1^st at home in the Mason Invitational at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Virginia.