Cortland, NY - Besting the field by nearly 19 seconds, senior Alex Benway (Queensbury, NY) topped 95 other runners to lead the Clarkson University Cross Country team at the SUNY Cortland Jack Daniels Shoot Out Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Knights' men's team placed third out of six teams with 75 points, trailing only Cortland (24) and Scranton (61), while leading SUNY ESF (115), Mohawk Valley Community College (127), and Ithaca (156). The women came in fourth of five teams with 111 points, beating Mohawk Valley CC by two points, but trailing Ithaca (31), Cortland (34) and Scranton (94).

Benway ran the 6,000-meter race in a time of 19:12.00, pacing the field by 18.9 seconds. Freshman Austin Holbrook (Corning, NY) was the next runner for Clarkson in a time of 20:39.60, good enough for 23rd overall. Clarkson then placed five runners from 26th-33rd to round out its scoring thanks to Tim Sick (Chambersburg, PA), Adam Merkwan (Meredith, NH), Matt Gammariello (Webster, NY), Neal Campbell (Queensbury, NY), and Pat Carroll (Queensbury, NY).

Leading the way for the women was freshman Sarah Governale (Wading River, NY), who took 25th place among 91 runners with a time of 16:24.60 in the 4,000-meter event. Audrey Keene (Hilton, NY) was less than six seconds behind Governale and placed 32nd. Maureen Hill (Latham, NY) came in 42nd, Rachel Bachman (Queensbury, NY) was 51st, Lisa D'Auria (West Islip) took 53rd, Catherine Zarnofsky (Glenville, NY) raced to 54th, and Eleanor Vane (Fairport, NY) finished off Clarkson's scoring in 68th place.