Women's Cross Country: Pearsons finishes second, leads WXC to team victory

(Bourne, Mass.) Second Year Head Coach Lance Bisson with the help of senior Anna Pearsons' (Kingston, Mass.) runner-up individual finish, led the Rivier University Women's Cross Country team to a one point (42-43) team victory over runner-up Massachusetts Maritime in the 13th Annual Lt. Travis J. Fuller Women's Cross Country Invitational on Friday afternoon at the Falcon Golf Course on Joint Base Cape Cod.

Parsons posted a time of 20:24 over the 5K layout to lead the Raiders to the team crown, as junior teammate Marin Owens (Brookline, N.H.) recorded a fourth place time of 20:38 as well for Rivier. Freshman Lauren Ferentino (Hudson, N.H.) checked in with a time of 23:48 for a 12th place finish and classmate Amelia Bassett (Derry, N.H.) crossed at 25:16, a 15th place finish. Senior leader Alyssa Brown (Manchester, N.H.) rounded out the group of champions with a finish time of 27:23 and 26th overall finish.

Sophomores Meaghan Hamilton (Braintree, Mass.) and Heather Seggelin (Sharon, Mass.) recorded respective fifth and sixth place times of 21:06 and 21:59 for the host Buccaneers, who received 11th, 16th and 22nd place performances from senior Kaylene Murphy (Randolph, Mass.) and juniors Rachael George (Mashpee, Mass.) and Sara Merzon (Rockland, Mass.) with respective times of 23:41, 25:29 and 26:22.

Eastern Nazarene finished third overall with a team score of 53 points in the competition, while Pine Manor (109), Curry (123) and Dean (128) followed in the fourth, fifth and sixth team spots. Anna Maria and Naval Academy Prep did not register team scores in the event.

Freshman Jessica Nangle (Southampton, Pa.) took top honors in the race with a time of 18:37 (12 seconds off the meet record) for Naval Academy Prep, which also received a third place finish (20:37) from freshman Sydney Means (Chester, Va.) and an eighth place performance (23:07) from freshman Elizabeth Grimmig (Portland, Tenn.). Eastern Nazarene sophomore Karen Diaz (Gaithersburg, Md.) and freshman Makayla Grantham (Appalachian, N.Y.) rounded out the top 10 with respective seventh and 10th place finishes of 23:03 and 23:37.

Rivier University will return to competition on Friday, October 13th as they participate in the Emmanuel College Saints Invitational held at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass.