The Georgetown men’s and women’s cross country teams opened their fall seasons last Friday at the Mount St. Mary’s 5K Duals in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The men’s team finished in second place out of seven teams, while the women’s team earned second place out of eight teams. The Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays secured the victories in each race.

Going into this race, the men’s team was ranked third in the Mid-Atlantic region of the 2019 D1 NCAA Men’s Cross Country Regional Rankings preseason poll, and the women were ranked seventh in the women’s rankings.

Leading up to Friday’s race, Head Coach Brandon Bonsey of the men’s team told GUHOYAS of the team’s excitement to compete.

“Friday will be a great opportunity to get the competitive juices flowing again,” Bonsey said.

Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Julie Culley also told GUHOYAS about the women’s team’s mindset going into last Friday’s race.

Coach Culley shared her confidence with us having seen all of the hard work her runners put in over the course of the long summer. “We are looking forward to opening this weekend and getting a soft start to what will be a great season for our women,” Culley said.

The men’s team went into this race as the reigning Big East champions. They competed strongly under the shadow of Division III powerhouse Johns Hopkins, which earned 11 of the top 20 spots in a dominant showing. The Hoyas had a small group of just seven runners competing. Senior Joshua Bell was the first Hoya to finish, earning 20th place with a time of 16:06.1.

Following close behind him was fellow senior Eion Nohilly and junior Ty Brownlow finishing simultaneously with a time of 16:06.3. Graduate student Reilly Bloomer claimed the next spot, finishing in 16:06.4.

Sophomores Price Owens and Quinn Nicholson had strong collegiate debuts this past weekend, showing the potential for each of them to have a firm position in the Hoyas’ lineup after sitting out all of their freshmen campaigns. Earning 25th, Owens finished in 16:06.9, followed by Nicholson in 26th place with a time of 16:07.9.

Last year’s women’s team had a strong season as well, having finished second out of 10 in the Big East championship meet held in Indianapolis, before placing seventh out of 30 in the NCAA regional meet in University Park, Pa.

On the women’s side, the Hoyas had five of their 14 runners finish in the top 10. Sophomore Rachel Sessa was the first to finish for the Hoyas, earning 5th place with a time of 18:21.92.

Freshman Maggie Donahue finished with a time of 18:29.25, gaining seventh place overall. Tying for eighth place was graduate student Madeline Perez and sophomore Sami Corman with a time of 18:30.1, followed closely by sophomore Alyssa Aldridge in 10th place.

The teams will return to action next Friday, Sept. 13, at the Penn State Spiked Shoe Invitational.