DARTMOUTH, Mass. (Sept. 15, 2012) – Paced by two individual finishes in the top-50, the Mount Holyoke College cross country team placed 16th of 38 competing squads at the 2012 UMASS-Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday. Leading the way for the second straight week was first year Elizabeth DeLeon, who was 30th overall in the field of 293 runners.

DeLeon (Boise, Idaho/Timberline) took advantage of excellent race conditions and a solid 5k course to post a time of 19:18. That time was over a full second faster than last week's season opener at Smith, where she recorded a time of 20:32.45.

The Lyons second place finisher, also for the second straight week, was sophomore Dana Fry ((Avon, Conn./Miss Porter's School), who crossed the line with a time of 19:32, good for 44th overall. Fry also shaved significant time off her pace from the previous week, running a 20:45.48 at Smith.

Senior Julia Merton (East Longmeadow, Mass./East Longmeadow) posted a time of 20:20 to place 97th overall, while junior Lucia Garcia (Bakersfield, Calif./East Bakersfield) crossed the finish line with a time of 20:43, which was 126th in the field. Classmate Phoebe Tengdin (Hanover, N.H./Hanover) rounded out the field with a time of 21:08, which was 169th overall.

Fellow NEWMAC-rival MIT was dominant in Saturday's race, claiming each of the first four finishing times, led by Brooke Johnson's winning time of 18:25. As a team, the Engineers won the women's team category with 17 points.  Mount Holyoke finished the day with 433 points.

The Lyons are back in action on September 29 when they compete at the 2012 Keene State Invitational. Meet time is set for 11am.