The William & Mary women's cross country team opened the year on Saturday morning with a strong runner-up performance at the Spider Alumni Open.  the Tribe had two women in the top five and four in the top-10, en route to scoring 42 points.  The host Richmond Spiders won the five-team event with 28 points, while George Mason was third with 75 points.  VCU, with 100 points, and Virginia State, 154, rounded out the team scores.  Richmond's Kate Dickow was the individual winner on the short two-mile course at Pole Green Park, running 11:09.2.

Leading the way for the Tribe was junior Lauren Finikiotis (Gibsonia, Pa.), who finished fourth overall in 11:23.2.  Redshirt-junior Liv Paxton (Rock Hill, S.C.) was right behind her in 11:24.6 for fifth place, and true freshman Emma Rogers (Roanoke, Va.) was eighth in 11:38.8 in her collegiate debut.  Redshirt-sophomore Taylor D. Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.) ran 11:39.1 for 10th place overall, and another freshman, Hope Stephens (Springfield, Va.) was 14th with a time of 11:42.9 to finish out the scoring line-up.  Redshirt-junior Deirdre Lewin (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) was 16th in 11:46.2, and redshirt-sophomore Megan Kolbe (Doylestown, Pa.) rounded out the varsity seven on Saturday in 11:49.7 for 17th overall.

Notes
W&M had the best pack running in the field, leading all teams with the lowest time from its first runner to its fifth (19.7 seconds) and from first to seventh (26.5 seconds) ... In fact, its 1-7 spread was faster than any other team's spread from 1-5 (Richmond, 30.1 seconds) ... Of the six runners for W&M that had run this event before, all six improved both their previous time and finish on Saturday ... On average, they improved 25.27 seconds and 13.17 spots in the rankings ... Redshirt-sophomore Julia Lambert (Virginia Beach, Va.) dropped the most time, improving 44.2 seconds from last year ... Lewin had the biggest improvement in place, moving up 25 spots from the last time she ran this race back in 2017 ... All five of W&M's true freshmen made their collegiate debuts in the race.

Up Next
William & Mary will begin the regular season at home in two weeks, hosting the 60th Annual W&M Cross Country Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13-14.  The Tribe will race the college women's race on Friday night at 6:15 p.m., while Saturday is given over to high school races beginning at 8 a.m.  All races will be held on the Dunbar Farms Course, on the grounds of Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Va.


2019 Richmond Spider Alumni Open - 2 Mile
Mechanicsville, Va. - Pole Green Park

Team Standings
1. Richmond 28
2. William & Mary 42
3. George Mason 75
4. VCU 100
5. Virginia State 154

Top Five Runners
1. Kate Dickow (UR) 11:09.2
2. Annabelle Eastman (GMU) 11:16.9
3. Lily Snow (UR) 11:19.6
4. Lauren Finikiotis (W&M) 11:23.2
5. Liv Paxton (W&M) 11:24.6

Other W&M Runners
9. Emma Rogers 11:38.8
10. Taylor D. Jones 11:39.1
14. Hope Stephens 11:42.9
16. Deirdre Lewin 11:46.2
17. Megan Kolbe 11:49.7
18. Julia Lambert 11:50.0
19. Megan Dougherty 11:52.3
28. Kaycee Cox-Philyaw 12:11.6
38. Anna Cestari 12:38.6