9/16/2008 - PURCHASE, NY – Both the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams had strong showings on Saturday afternoon at the First Annual Purchase Cross Country Invitational. Sophomore Angelica Iribarne (Hasbrouck Heights, NJ) led the women’s squad to a third place finish with her second straight win, while the men’s team also finished third behind Andrew Giordano’s (Staten Island, NY) ninth place finish.

The women’s squad finished afternoon with 70 total points and edged Manhattanville (75) for the third spot. Iribarne took the win with a final time of 21:37. Stephanie Widmer also had a strong race, placing ninth in a time of 24:27. Ana Garcia (Kingwood, NJ) in 22nd, Mary Eileen Kiernan (Rockaway Point, NY) in 23rd and Keianna McQueen (Brooklyn, NY) in 24th rounded out Mount Saint Vincent’s top five in the race. Teresa Santini (Lynbrook, NY) finished in 30th position for the Dolphins on Saturday.

For the second straight week, the men’s squad was led by Giordano. He led the charge in ninth place with a final time of 32:54, just one second behind the eighth place finisher. Giordano helped the Mount to a final team score of 63.

The men had a strong all around race as everyone in the scoring five finished inside the top 20 on Saturday. Ralph Kiszakicwicz (Ozone Park, NY) took 11th overall with a time of 33:26 on Saturday, while Navin Purushothan (Orange, CT) came home in 14th with a time of 33:39.

Rounding out the field for the Dolphins on Saturday were David Dion (Litchfield, CT) with a time of 34:13, Colin Galvin (Thiells, NY) with a time of 35:17, David Guerrero (East Meadow, NY) with a time of 38:16, Renaldo Phillip (White Plains, NY) in 39:07, Shane Thomas (Mount Vernon, NY) in 40:00 and John Argano (Brooklyn, NY) in 45:09.

After two strong showings to open the 2008 season, both the men and women’s teams will be back on the trails on Saturday, September 20 when they take part in the Bard Invitational.