Women's Results

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (October 29, 2011) – Heading into the Liberty League Cross Country Championships, the Vassar College women's team had two goals: maintain last year's second place finish and make progress against a strong St. Lawrence team, always a national power. The Brewers accomplished both in finishing second at the 6k league meet held at the Vassar Farm under cold and snowy conditions.

For a second straight year, the Brewers finished second overall in the Liberty League Championships, tallying 61 points. St. Lawrence captured the championship for the 10th straight time with 23 points. RPI finished third (95 points), just one point ahead of RIT (96), William Smith (142), Union (168), Clarkson (179) and Bard (218).

The race was won by St. Lawrence senior Jenna Hulton in 22:04.

In a field with 97 participants, Vassar placed runners in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th scoring positions. Two non-scoring runners finished in 17th and 23rd places.

Junior Kelly Holmes led Vassar across the tape in 10th place (23:22). She was followed by two freshmen, Viviane Ford (11th) and Harper Cleves (12th) in 23:35 and 23:31 respectively. Senior Elizabeth Forbes finished in 23:34, good for 13th position and fellow senior Samantha Creath rounded out Vassar's scoring contingent in 15th place (23:41). Freshman Cassady Carpenter finished 17th overall (23:54) and senior Hannah Ziobrowski rounded out the team effort in 23rd place (24:19).

“It was an solid second place finish, and that was without Aubree (Piepmeier) who is recovering from the flu,” said head coach James McCowan. “We ran a nice tight pack and managed to display our versatility today. Our freshmen runners really stepped up in a big race. Viviane (Ford) and Harper (Cleves) really took it out from the get-go and Kelly (Holmes) can always be a factor. We had a job to do in defending our second place finish and we accomplished that.”

For Cleves, who is from Southern California, the cold and snowy conditions were a welcome sight. “It was exciting to run in today's weather and I was very pleased with my finish and I think it had a lot to do with us sticking together as a group.”

Ford said she was “pumped up” to run in the cold weather. “I think after running in such humidity all season, the conditions helped get me into a running zone today,” the freshman said. “When I had about 1,000 meters left and the snow started coming down more heavily, it was very exciting.”

For their efforts, Holmes, Ford Cleves and Forbes were named Second-Team All-Liberty League.

The Brewers will have a week off before traveling to St. Lawrence on November 12  for the NCAA Atlantic Regional race, the highlight of the 2011 schedule.