POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - Juniors Nia Goddard and Morgan Lee finished first and second to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's cross country team to victory in the Ron Stonitsch Invitational hosted by Vassar College on Saturday. It was the first meet of the season for the Engineers, who finished with 39 points on its way to defeating eight other schools.

Goddard ran the 5k course in 19:01.6 for an average mile pace of 6:08. She eclipsed her previous personal-best time of 19:40.0 by nearly 40 seconds. Lee, who is in her first season running cross country after two years of playing field hockey, was second overall with a time of 19:11.8 - a pace of 6:11. She was 14 seconds in front of the third place finisher, Sasha Allison of the host Brewers.

RPI's next three runners each finished simultaneously with Jillian Lees in 11th with a time of 20:07.1, followed by Grace Brolly in 20:07.5 and Eileen Beres in 20:13.1. They each ran between a 6:29-6:31 pace.

Two others from the Engineers were in the top 25 of the 95-competitor race as Leah Goodloe was 19th (20:40.9) and Erin Kelley was 24th (20:53.2).

Coast Guard was second as a team with 67 points, followed by Vassar's 77 and New Paltz's 112. 

Rensselaer returns to racing on September 25 when it hosts the Saratoga Invitational at the Saratoga Springs State Park.