NEW YORK - In their first meet of the season, the Binghamton Invitational, the Columbia cross country dominated the competition, taking first in both the men's and women's races. The men finished with 21 points, 20 points ahead of second-place Binghamton, while the women finished with 15 points, a full 41 points ahead of their nearest competition, host Binghamton.

On the women's side running a 5k, junior Jillian Goodwin and senior Irena Ossola came in first and second, in 19:07.84 and 19:07.88. First-year Caroline McDonough (19:08.09), junior Jacqueline Drouin (19:08.13), junior Julianne Quinn (19:08.29), junior Erin Hays (19:08.37) and first-year Claire Buck (19:08.38) crossed the finish line as a pack, all coming with in one second of their teammates, and securing a Columbia sweep of the top seven spots.

Places eight through 13 also saw runners finish wearing Columbia blue. First-year Erin Gillingham led the second wave, coming in eighth in 19:25.47. Senior Christina Henderson came in behind her in 19:28.92. From there, it was first-year Mallory Anderson (19:34.45), sophomore Leila Norman (19:38.64), first-year Jessica Fingers (19:39.91) and first-year Irene Kalbian (19:40.86). Coming in 15th and 16th were first-years Erica Pearson (19:50.50) and Trish Reilly (19:51.58). First-year Caitlin Williamson rounded out the pack, finishing in 21:35.45.

On the men's side, the Lions had similar successes in the 8k, with 12 of the top 14 runners coming in Columbia blue. Sophomore Kyle Merber was the top finisher for the Lions, as he came in second, with a time of 25:53.44. He was followed by junior Anthony Merra (25.53.62), first-year Benjamin Veilleux (25:53.96) and sophomore Justin Heck (25:54.00). Coming in seventh was junior Brendan Martin (25:54.77), followed closely by senior Ryan Withall (25:54.81), junior Dustin Martin (25:55.32), first-year Michael Murphy (25:55.37), sophomaore Gary Brownell (25:55.38), junior Matthew Ciambriello (25:55.68), first-year Leighton Spencer (25:56.68), and first-year Marc Feigen (26:00.07). First-year Blake Cowan was next to cross the line for Columbia, finishing 17th in 26:06.42, while Thomas Poland and Andy Buchanan came in at 26:26.79 and 26:27.06. First-year Steven Iglehart finished in 26:58.12, senior Patrick Jeffers came across in 27:05.01, first-year Paul Snyder finished in 27:24.84, and sophomore Kyle Cooke rounded out the group, finishing in 28:17.72.

Up next, the Lions take a few weeks off of racing, before they travel to Virginia for an October 3rd showing at the George Mason Invitational.