Oct. 1, 2010

Watch the top five Villanova runners cross the finish line
Post-Race Interview With Flotrack.com
Complete Results (PDF)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Senior Sheila Reid (Newmarket, Ont.) came in second overall to lead three Villanova runners in the top seven and the Wildcats cruised to a big victory on Friday afternoon at the Notre Dame Invitational in their first big meet of the season. Villanova had all five of its counting runners place in the top 31 of the race and finished with 64 points to easily outdistance runner-up Oregon (118) and third-place Florida State (129).

Reid, senior Amanda Marino (Jackson, N.J.) and junior Bogdana Mimic (Pancevo, Serbia) finished within 13 seconds of each other in second, fifth and seventh place, respectively on the 5K course at the Notre Dame Golf Course. Reid crossed the line with a time of 16:26 and was just four seconds off the winning pace of a runner from Stony Brook.

A field of 24 teams ran on a warm afternoon on a dusty course but the runners still went out at a particularly fast pace, especially for this point in the season. Despite it being a tough race, the Wildcats still finished with the margin of victory that was often apparent in their results last season.

Senior Ali Smith (Columbia, Md.) and freshman Emily Lipari (Greenvale, N.Y.) came in 19th and 31st, respectively, to complete Villanova's top five runners. All five had a spread of less than one minute in their finishing times.

Today's race featured four of the top five teams in this week's USTFCCCA national poll and a total of 12 nationally-ranked squads overall. New Mexico and Stony Brook rounded out the top five teams in the final standings.

Seniors Sarah Morrison (Chambersburg, Pa.) and Callie Hogan (Bay Shore, N.Y.) came in with times of 17:43 and 18:21, respectively, for Villanova.

Next up on the schedule for the Wildcats is the Penn State National on October 16 at 10 a.m.