HOLMDEL, N.J. - The Monmouth University men's and women's cross country teams both finished second out of four Division I schools at the 16th Annual Monmouth Cross Country Invitational at Holmdel Park, Saturday morning.  The Hawks were paced by two overall second place finishers in Jen Nelson (Barnegat, N.J./Barnegat [Ocean County College]) and Ben Hutterer (Saxonburg, Pa./Knoch).

Rutgers University took first place in the women's 5k (3.1 miles) tallying 20 points followed by the Hawks with 39.  La Salle University finished the race third posting 92 points, slightly ahead of Temple with 94.

"We had our top-five all under 20 minutes," said head coach Joe Compagni.  "This was a great early season effort by the whole women's squad."

Nelson's time of 18:38.6 snaps recent graduate Cailin Lynam's course record of 18:46.9 set in 2008.  The transfer crossed the finish line second overall and first of Division I schools.  Kelsey Maher (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) was the next Hawk to finish posting a time of 19:27.6 good for 10th overall.  Senior Christine Altland (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan) finished just under four second later in 11th place at 19:31.5.  Junior Juliet Smith (Freedom, Pa./Freedom Area) finished 17th at 19:55.2 followed by freshman Lucia Montefusco (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur) in 19th place with a time of 19:59.1.  Emily MacEwen (South Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) and Macey Marko (Somerset, N.J./Franklin) rounded out the Hawks' top seven recording 26th and 31st place finishes, respectfully. 

Temple took the men's crown with 40 points, just three points ahead of the Hawks.  La Salle followed in third with 65 as Rutgers finished last among Division I schools with 77 points.

"This was one of the best performances our men have had this early in the season at Holmdel Park," comment Compagni. 

Hutterer finished top five for the second straight week as he was the first to cross the line for the Hawks, second overall finishing the hilly five-mile course  in 26:27.7.  The Pennsylvania native recorded the third best finish in program history at Holmdel.  Dan Collura (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) posted his best finish of the season crossing the finish line 9th with a time of 26:59.5.  Todd Apgar (Somers, N.Y./Somers) finished four seconds later at 27:03.8, 11th overall. Senior Billy Dowd (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) tabbed a 15th place finish at 27:23.0 followed by Jeff Ascough (Toms River, N.J./.Toms River East)  at 27:28.4 good for 17th place.  Rounding out the top seven for MU were Sean Hartnett (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) in 21st and Even Mydlowski (Hamilton, N.J./Hamilton East)  in 28th finishing the race in 27:33.2 and 27:41.6.

The Monmouth Invitational featured a 12 team field with over 100 finishers in each race.

Monmouth returns to action when it travels to Cortland, N.Y. on September 25th for the Jack Daniels Invitational hosted by SUNY Cortland.