Cross Country races ahead of foes

The Blue Jays have increased their stamina and hit the ground running, as they have been steadily improving from race to race early in this promising 2002 cross country season.

The Johns Hopkins men's and women's teams competed Saturday in the Baltimore Metro Invitational at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, finishing third and fourth, respectively.

Leading the men's team was senior John Onofrey, who finished 10th with a time of 28:02. It was the second straight week that Onofrey had been the first Blue Jay to cross the finish line. Freshman Gabe Tonkin also turned in a great performance, placing 23rd after finishing in 29:10.

Three women placed in the top 10 for the Blue Jays, which all but guaranteed them a top three finish. Freshman Emily Chisholm led the lady Jays with a fifth place finish in 20:06, only seconds behind the third place finisher. Senior Hilary Knipe and sophomore Tiffany Miceli finished ninth, with a time of 20:38, and seventh, with a time of 20:14, respectively.

Both the men's and women's teams improved their overall scores from last year. While the men improved from 100 points to 83 points, the women made dramatic improvement finishing with 51 points, over 25 points better than the previous year.

Johns Hopkins opened the season competing at the Salisbury Invitational Aug. 31. The Blue Jays did well, as the men took ninth place of out 14 and the women finished sixth out of 16.

Miceli and Chisholm led the lady Jays again finishing 20th with a time of 22:19 and 21st with a time of 22:20. On the men's side, Onofrey was the first Blue Jay to cross, placing 30th with a time of 27:21.

With the strong performances early into the season, the Blue Jays look to continue to practice and to get even better in the weeks to come. If the beginning of the season is any indication of how well these teams will do, then Johns Hopkins should be very excited.

"We're looking even better than we did last year," sophomore Eric Scrivner said. "We have a lot of freshmen this year that have made us a lot stronger and more competitive."

The Blue Jays will return to action Sept. 21 at the New York University Invitational, in Bronx, N.Y. at 10 a.m.