ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Oneonta women's cross-country team had a strong performance as a group and finished in third place at the Yellowjacket 6K Invitational, Saturday afternoon in Rochester. The top five Red Dragons all placed in the top 35, out of 212 participants, as it was the best team performance in the past five years competing in the invitational and the best placement at Genesee Valley Park since their first-place finish in 2014.

"A really good, full race distance opener for the whole squad!" Associate Head Coach Meghann Tanner exclaimed. "Everybody executed their race plans as they should have and ended up catching a lot of people on the back half of the race." 

Sophomore Natalia Sweat (Newburgh, NY/Newburgh) led Oneonta with a 10th place finish at 22:49.1. Sweat was in the middle of the pack after the first 2K, then she jumped 13 spots and was 21st towards after 4K. The Red Dragon sophomore closed out the race strong and sprinted past another 11 runners with a 7:17.0 final 2K.

Senior Anya Sloth (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta Senior) and Jill Cinquina (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Walter Panas) placed 27th and 29th overall, respectively, as the Red Dragons second and third team finishers. Following the first 2K, Sloth paced by 10 runners to take 27th, then she held the placement for a 23:30.3 finish. Cinquina capitalized on a 7:44.5 final 2K to go up six spots as she crossed the line at 23:38.8.

Junior Anna Kern (Central Valley, NY/Monroe-Woodbury) and sophomore Summer Sayaves (Levittown, NY/General Douglas MacArthur) rounded out the top five for Oneonta. Kern was fourth on the team, cruising to a 37th place finish for 31 points at 23:49.4, and Sayaves crossed the finish line 41st overall and fifth on the team for 33 points at 23:58.3. In the final 2K, Sayaves had the second fastest time on the team, behind Sweat, at 7:42.1.

Freshman Paige Baker (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) was sixth on the team, 63rd overall, with a time of 24:28.9, while freshman Alannah McCarthy (Slingerlands, NY/Clayton A. Bouton) ended the race at 24:51.7 as Oneonta's seventh finisher.

The Red Dragons are back in action on Friday, October 2, for the Fredonia State Kara Hall Memorial Invite in Fredonia at 11 am.