By Peter Conroy

The Northeastern women’s cross country team, newly chosen as the 16th ranked squad in New England by a poll of area coaches, opened their season with a third place finish in the Central Connecticut State Invitational. Amber Cullen’s fourth place finish (of 108 runners) led the team to the top third of the nine team meet. The junior ran an 18:40, 40 seconds better than her time in the same tournament last year, and was joined in the top 10 by sophomore Erin Ballard (19:24, 10th place). Emily Watson also had a strong race, taking 11th with a time of 19:38. Erica Riecke and Lauren Phillips placed 23rd and 37th, as NU’s top five finishers, while Ashleigh Bardwell trailed Phillips by two seconds to place 38th. The University of Connecticut dominated throughout, winning the meet with a score of 19. Syracuse edged the Huskies for second place, 76-81. BC took the number one ranking with 171 points in the coaches poll. Dartmouth (153), Williams (151), Brown (137), and BU (135) rounded out the top five. NU garnered 62 points. Senior John Litchfield was the Huskies top runner in the same tournament, placing tenth with a time of 27:48 in a field of 79 and helping the NU to a fourth place finish out of eight teams. Holy Cross and Syracuse both tallied 52 points in the tournament, but HC was crowned champion after their sixth runner bested the Syracuse sixth man. New Haven placed third with 61 points while the Huskies finished with 120. Freshman Tim Chan (36th), senior Nick Kent (37th), and Thomas Pratt (40th) rounded out Northeastern’s top five finishers on the difficult course. The men were not ranked in the top-25 in the coaches poll, but did earn an honorable mention with one point. Providence (171), Dartmouth (213), Brown (210), UMass-Lowell (184), and BU (180) were named the top five teams this season. Both squads will meet BU and Colgate at their home turf at Franklin Park this Friday at 4 p.m.