Junior Erin Sola placed 11th overall to lead Southern Connecticut State University to a seventh-place team finish Saturday at the UMass Dartmouth cross country course.

The Owls finished with 201 points to place seventh in a 33-team field. Sola led the way for Southern Connecticut, completing the 6K in 21 minutes, 53.40 seconds. Her 11th-place finish earned 11 team points and was the top individual result for the SCSU women this fall. 

Sophomore Mckenzie David was the Owls' second finisher, placing 24th overall in 22:16.97. Senior Peyton Dauphinais followed in 34th place with a time of 22:38.19. Senior Kaylee Gravel and freshman Michelle Blackburn closed out the scoring for Southern Connecticut. Gravel placed 55th in 22:59.73, while Blackburn, in her first collegiate invitational, placed 78th in 23:34.21. The Owls showed strong depth behind their top five. Sophomore Maya Fisher placed 115th in 24:40.97, followed by freshmen Skielyz Reyes in 137th at 25:15.59 and Raelyn Oetzel in 141st at 25:20.00. Freshman Isabella Duarte finished 173rd in 26:28.98 and sophomore Anna Wayne placed 192nd in 27:08.94 to round out the lineup for SCSU.

Southern Connecticut's top-five spread was 1 minute, 40.81 seconds, with all five scoring runners finishing inside the top 80 in a field of more than 230 runners. The result was highlighted by three freshmen in the team's top eight, continuing a trend of early contributions from the program's newcomers.

The seventh-place finish is the best team result of the season for the Owls against a large New England field that included several nationally ranked regional opponents. With 201 points, Southern Connecticut finished as one of the top Division II teams in the field.

The Owls have shown steady improvement through the early season, led by Sola and David at the front and a developing pack behind them. The experience gained against 33 scoring teams will be valuable as the team moves toward Northeast-10 Conference championship racing.