This past weekend, the women’s cross country team started its season at the UMass Invitational. The team finished in fifth place overall as the only Division III school in a six-team field.

Impressively, the Jeffs had seven runners that contributed to the final score. Captain Savanna Gornisiewicz ’17 was first among Amherst runners with a time of 18:31, good for 11th place in the 82-person field.

Right behind her was first-year Lizzy Lacy, who finished her first race in the purple and white in a time of 18:32.

Sophomore Veronica Rocco crossed the finish line in 19:53, and senior captain Betsy Black finished in 20:04.

Rounding out the scoring runners of the purple and white were juniors Tess Frenzel, Cat Lowdon and Cara Lembo. They finished with times of 20:12, 20:15 and 20:17, respectively.

Gornisiewicz was very encouraged by her team’s results this past weekend: “It was a great start to the season and I’m really proud of how we all competed as a team. I’m excited to see how we’ll all come together this year.”

“It was all Division I teams at the UMass Invitational so there was a lot of very good competition,” Cara Lembo ’17 said. “It was good to get a race under our belt so we’re ready for Williams next weekend. I think that we’ll all be ready to race against some strong NESCAC teams.”

With that first race out of the way, the team returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 16 at the Purple Valley Invitational hosted by Williams College.

Last season, the team finished fifth out of a 24-team field, with Gornisiewicz finishing eighth overall in the 6,000-meter race. The invitational is set to begin at 1 p.m.