Riley Harmon (left) and Sophie Gitlin (right)
Riley Harmon (L) and Sophie Gitlin (R) placed in the top three at the Triton Invitational

Riley Harmon, Sophie Gitlin Finish 2-3 at Triton Invitational for CMS Women's Cross Country

Full Results

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Sophomore Riley Harmon and sophomore Sophie Gitlin finished in second and third place, respectively, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's cross country team earned a second-place finish at the Triton Invitational, hosted by UC San Diego on Saturday morning.

CMS finished in a close second behind host UC San Diego, which edged out the Athenas 30 points to 39. Point Loma, which had the individual champion in Zita Molnar, was a distant third with 92 points. 

Molnar cruised to the individual win in 22:00.8, but Harmon and Gitlin were the next two to cross for CMS. Harmon finished in 22:35.8 to come in second, while Gitlin was seven seconds later in 22:42.9 for the highest individual finish in her young career. 

The Athenas then had a wave of runners come in from 10-20 out of the 73 runners in the field. Junior Dulcie Jones came in tenth place in 23:03.5, followed by junior Olivia Gleason in 11th in 23:11.6, the fourth Athena to cross. Sophomore Brooklyn Button was the final scorer for CMS in 13th place overall and in fifth on the team in 23:20.9, just edging out senior teammate Georgia Scherer by less than a second, who was 14th in 23:21.3. 

Senior Alexandra Lambros also earned a top-20 finish, crossing in 17th place in 23:36.4. Senior Gabriella Kimmerly (22nd), junior Jackie McVay (23rd), sophomore Emily Clarke (27th) and junior Samantha Baker (29th) all placed in the top 30. 

CMS will be back in action in three weeks when it begins the postseason in November. The Athenas will look for its 10th straight SCIAC Championship on Nov. 2, which will be held in Claremont, and will then run in the NCAA West Regionals on Nov. 16, which are also in Claremont. CMS will then hope to advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be held on Nov. 23 in Louisville, Kentucky.