Geneva, NY - Senior Alex Benway (Queensbury, NY) won the 8,000-meter race at Seneca Lake State Park by nearly a full minute, helping lead the Clarkson University Men's Cross Country team to a first-place showing at the Cross Country-Only Championships hosted by Hobart/William Smith on Saturday afternoon.

The men took first among 13 teams that sponsor only cross country as an NCAA Division III sport as opposed to both cross country and track and field. Clarkson's women nearly matched the men with a second place finish, though they had 15 other teams with which to contend. Clarkson's men scored a team-low 32 points with the runner-up tallying 64, while the women came within nine points of first place with 54 points, trailing host William Smith's 45.

Benway won the 8,000-meter race in a time of 26 minutes, 47 seconds, which was 59 seconds better than the second-place runner. Teammate Andrew Gelston (White Plains, NY) was third among the 141 runners in 27:50.68 and Patrick Carroll (Queensbury, NY) came in seven seconds behind Gelston in fifth place. Freshman Adam Merkwan (Meredith, NH) came in 10th in 28:43.36 and Dan Fritz (Cicero, NY) took 13th to round out the Clarkson top-five scorers.

For the women, senior Audrey Keene (Hilton, NY) came in sixth place overall among 126 runners to lead the Golden Knights, completing the 5,000-meter event in 21:29.70. Freshman Sarah Governale (Wading River, NY) came in ninth, 16 seconds off the pace set by Keene. Maureen Hill (Latham, NY) and Rachel Bachman (Queensbury, NY) finished in 11th and 12th place, respectively, and Erin Corrigan (Remsen, NY) crossed the line in 16th.