Women's cross country tops RPI, ties Wellesley at Bates Invitational

Jessica Wilson led Bates in eighth place overall, leading the Bobcats into a second-place tie with Wellesley at the Bates Invitational on Sept. 19, 2015. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine -- The Bates women's cross country team, unranked in this week's national Division III poll, outpaced No. 29 RPI and tied with No. 33 Wellesley for second place out of four teams on Saturday at the Bates Invitational.

With each team's top 10 runners figuring into the scoring, No. 21 Tufts won the meet with 122 points, followed by Bates and Wellesley with 240 apiece. RPI, ranked fifth in the Atlantic Region in this week's polls, scored 254 to finish fourth. In the New England Region, Tufts is currently ranked fifth, Wellesley seventh and Bates ninth.

Junior Jessica Wilson (Cumberland, Maine) and senior Isabelle Unger (Charlotte, Vt.) finished eighth (18:56.7) and ninth (19:03.1) respectively out of 87 competitors to lead Bates. Also placing in the top 20 were junior Molly Chisholm (Wayland, Mass.) in 13th (19:11.3), sohpmore Katherine Cook (South Burlington, Vt.) in 17th (19:20.6) and first-year Sarah Rothmann (Andover, Mass.) in 19th (19:26.3).

First-year Hannah Austin (North Yarmouth, Maine), sophomore Mary Szatkowski (Buxton, Maine) and senior Addie Cullenberg (Farmington, Maine) took places 31-33 in 20:02.2, 20:02.4 and 20:06.7, respectively. Senior Julia Fisher (Philadelphia, Pa.) and first-year Katie Barker (Burlington, Vt.) completed Bates' scoring in 40th (20:20.2) and 42nd (20:22.2), respectively.

Bates next competes at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University on Oct. 2.