By Sean Williams - SPORTS EDITOR

The men’s and women’s cross-country teams competed in their first event of the year this Sunday at the St. John’s University/Hofstra University Fall Invitational.  There were four teams in total. The men managed to place in first, while the women managed to place in third.

Both teams experienced something of a resurgence under new head coach Vince Giambanco. Freshman Daniel Barlev  placed first in the individual event for the men and Becky Celorio came in third for the women.

“Today was a great start for the season,” Giambanco said. “Being that we haven’t been able to sharpen up.”

Barlev was supported by fellow freshmen Alan Hetherington and Rodney Chirchir, who finished in 11th and 14th place, respectively. Hetherington’s 16:18 5K time put him 35 seconds behind Barlev. Chirchir started strong before fading to a 16:28.

Giambanco said, “As the season goes on and [Chirchir] gets adjusted we fully expect him to compete up at the front of the pack.”

The men’s Pride top five was rounded out by sophomore Jack Finlayson, who placed 19th with a time of 16:33, and Austin Jenkins, who placed 26th with a time of 16:43.

“This tells me that we have a chance to move up in both the conference and the region,” Giambanco said.

In the women’s competition, Celorio did as expected. The star of the women’s cross-country team supported the squad to a third place finish. Junior Lisa Eberwein and senior Eva Holtermann supported the team with stellar top 20 placements.

“The big thing about the women was just trying to compete,” Giambanco said. “We weren’t really worried about times or splits or anything like that, we just wanted to see them out there racing and trying to beat everyone they could.”

“This tells me that we’re off to a good start,” Giambanco said. “We definitely have a lot of work to do, “