The GW cross country team began its season at the Maryland-Eastern Shore Lid Lifter on Saturday, with the men placing second out of six teams and the women placing fourth out of five teams. GW’s top runners did not compete in the race, as they are preparing for Saturday’s Mount St. Mary’s Invitational.

On the men’s side, youth led the way. Freshman Ryan Shaver paced the Colonials with a time of 27:51:47, finishing sixth out of 51 runners, while freshman Daniel Morgan finished eighth for GW in 27:55:97. Classmate Ian Hajek finished 10th (28:11:87) and sophomore Phil Sherman (29:16:08) finished 17th. Rounding out the Colonials’ lineup was freshman Jeffrey Scranton (30:19:21), who finished in 30th.

Maryland-Eastern Shore’s Barnabas Togam won the men’s race in a time of 27:07:43, while Norfolk State University won the overall team title.

For the GW women, freshman Bridget Skeuse placed second out of 38 with a time of 19:41:15, only 12.34 seconds behind Maryland-Eastern Shore’s Eva Slavikova. Sophomore Olivia Schramm (22:17:40), freshman Taylor Leavitt (22:19:16) and senior Laura DeLucia (22:33:83) finished in 16th, 17th and 18th places, respectively, while sophomore Meredith Deschenes (23:14:43) finished in 25th.

Norfolk State also won the women’s team title.