The No. 12 SUNY Oneonta women's cross country ran amongst six nationally ranked squads today in Oberlin, Ohio and came away with a second place finish overall with 125 points.  SUNYAC rival, No. 5 SUNY Geneseo, was the overall team champion with 54 points.  All seven Oneonta runners were in the top-67, as the Red Dragons improved on its sixth place showing at this event in 2013.
 
The Red Dragons finished ahead of No. 7 Oberlin (3^rd), No. 32 Ohio Wesleyan (6^th), No. 27 Emory (7^th) and No. 33 Carnegie Mellon (8^th).
 
 "Course conditions were slow," commented Head Coach Angelo Posillico via email.  "It rained all night and most of the morning. It was very muddy, especially for the women's race, along with it being cold and windy. Times were slow as a result, which is always a bummer because this course would be incredibly fast if we could ever catch good conditions out here."
 
Leading Oneonta today was sophomore Elizabeth Chichester (Mount Morris/Mount Morris), who was the fourth overall finisher.  Chichester covered the 6K course in 22:13.
 
"To say I'm proud of our women today would be an understatement," said Posillico.  "We traveled 8 hours to run on the home course of the #7 team in the country and our ladies ran great to beat them.  Elizabeth ran tough and is rapidly establishing herself as an All-American candidate. What's special about this team is that not one of our girls was satisfied with their performance today. We know we have yet to show how good we really are and hope to do that in two weeks at the SUNYAC championships."
 
Rounding out Oneonta's top-7 today were seniors Marielle Genovesi (Glen Head/North Shore) (21^st), Jaclyn Masucci (Staten Island/St. Joseph by the Sea) (45^th) and Brianna McLoughlin (Yonkers/School of the Holy Child) (69^th), and sophomores Alyssa Drapeau (Glenville/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) (19^th), Mary Kate Bida (Millbrook/Millbrook) (36^th) and Rachel Shine (56^th).
 
The next race for Oneonta will be on Saturday, Nov. 1 when they compete for a SUNYAC title at the 2014 conference championships hosted by Brockport.