The Georgetown cross country team began its season this past weekend at the Great Meadows Invitational at The Plains, Va., with a typically strong performance.

Although the team’s top runners were absent, both the women’s and men’s team turned in second place overall finishes.

On the women’s side, freshman Maggie Infield showed promise as she led the team in her debut as a Hoya. Her third-place finish over the five kilometer course came in 18:35.51. Freshman elissa Greilli and juniors Erin Henry and Sabine Knothe finished in fifth, ninth and 10th places respectively with times of 18:48.54, 19:23.40 and 19:35.93.

Duke’s Ali Henderson won the race in 18:05.48, leading the Blue Devil women to first place at the invitational. James Madison finished in the third spot with 80 points.

The Duke men also took first place at the meet, with American, Yale and JMU rounding out third through fifth place in the men’s race, respectively. The Hoyas accumulated 38 points to capture second out of the three competing teams.

On the men’s side, the Hoyas’ second-place performance was headed by senior Chris Esselborn’s sixth-place finish as he crossed the line in 20:24.57. Sophomore teammate Brian Dalpiaz followed closely behind as he came through in seventh place with a time of 20:26.48. Freshman Daniel Nunn and senior Tommy Manning finished ninth and 10th in the race which featured over 50 runners. They turned in times of 20:37.21 and 20:45.23, respectively.

Nick Schnieder of Duke won the race, leading his team with a time of 19:49.05. Sophomore Pat MacAdie of American took second and junior Michael Hatch of Duke claimed third place.

Georgetown next travels to the Paul Short Invitational held at Lehigh University (Pa.) on Sept. 25.