Fairfax, Va. - Redshirt freshmen David Strickland and Dustin Jutras both recorded top-10 individual finishes in their debut races to help the George Mason University's men's cross country earn a third-place team finish at the Spider Alumni Open on Saturday.

In addition to Strickland, who completed the course in 15:56.6 for sixth overall finish, and Jutras (ninth - 16:05.6), the Patriots were represented by four additional runners in the 33-runner men's race at Pole Green Park – redshirt freshmen Grayson Morgan (12th - 16:12.8), Paul Adam (21st - 16:34.2) and Jonathan Schloth (26th - 16:48.6), and redshirt sophomore Marcus Hatchett (24th - 16:39.7) – and  combined for 61 finish points, just seven short of event host Richmond, who finished second with 54. The event was won by Davidson, which fielded a very experienced team and finished with 20 points. VCU rounded the team standings off at fourth place with 99 points.

"I was very pleased with the work we got done today with the group that we opened up," the men's head coach Andrew Gerard after the season-opening meet. "We basically put all of our redshirt freshmen from last year out there and they very successfully got the rust off. At this meet, with the 5k distance being so short compared to what we're preparing to race come championship season [5 miles or 10k], we always look strong but the faster pace is a bit of a shock and that was true today. Overall a good start but a lot to get done in the next 8 weeks."

In the women's two-mile race that followed, the Patriots finished in fourth place with 110 points, but showed great consistency. Senior Victoria Doss led Mason in the 60-runner race, completing the course in 12:22.9 for 36th overall finish. She was followed by freshmen Carolyn Conley (12:28.1), Hunter Samuelson (12:28.7) and Caitlin Kelly (12:29.4), who crossed the finish line together for 39th, 40th, and 41st overall finishes, respectively. Shortly after, senior Siobhan Klie finished with a time of 12:33.4 for the 43rd overall place and put an end to the Patriot performances on the course.

"Today we ran four freshmen just to give them some race experience," associate head coach Sita Ewell said. "I think they learned a lot in terms of how to race and be competitive.  Two miles is a little short for us, but it was definitely a good rust buster and now we will look to put in some solid training to prepare for the A-10 championship."

Both teams will return to training for a week before they head to New Market, Va. for the James Madison Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 12.