HAVERFORD, Pa.—Each of the five scoring runners for Villanova placed in the top 10 overall and the Wildcats finished atop the team standings at the Main Line Invitational on Friday afternoon. Three of the team's top five finishers on the day are first year athletes who made their collegiate debut in the local 5K race. The results were strong enough for Villanova to hold off a more veteran lineup from Penn by three points (38-41) for the victory. Freshman Zoe Mosher (Pleasantville, N.S.) led the way in fifth place out of 94 runners with a time of 17:48.9.
 
Mosher and fellow Wildcats newcomers Cecilia Montagnese (Leetsdale, Pa.) and Sophia McInnes (Bayport, N.Y.) were the top three finishers for Villanova in each of their first collegiate races. Montagnese came in sixth overall in 17:57.8 and McInnes was eighth with a time of 18:03.4. There were five Wildcats in a row from eighth to 12^th places, with McInnes followed by senior Kinsey Pogue (Danville, Calif.) and first year runner Maeve Smith (Ocean City, N.J.) to round out the scoring runners in the top 10. Pogue has looked strong early in the season and posted a time of 18:08.1, while Smith finished in 18:16.3.
 
The rest of the Villanova lineup included sixth year collegian Lizzie Martell (Essex Junction, Vt.) and newcomer Gabby Pistner (St. Marys, Pa.) who finished 11^th (18:29.7) and 12^th (18:32.5), respectively. Martell was the runner-up at the Temple Invitational last month in the Wildcats official season opener, followed by Pogue and others in the Villanova lineup. Pistner made her collegiate debut in that race at Temple with an eighth place finish.
 
The junior duo of Therese Trainer (Havertown, Pa.) and Caelen O'Leary (Taunton, Mass.) posted times of 18:58.7 and 19:11.3 in Friday's race. The top two teams were the Wildcats and Penn, followed by George Mason (95) and La Salle (112) in a field of 10 teams.
 
The early season meet just a couple of miles from campus has been a fixture on the early season schedule for the Wildcats for the past two decades. Although the team does not usually have a full lineup for this race, the competition is an important one for head coach Gina Procaccio and her team as they prepare for the bigger meets to come during the season.
 
Villanova will race again in two weeks when it competes in the Paul Short Run at Lehigh on October 3.