ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Juniors Mackenzie Donahue (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) and Hannah Rice (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) and sophomore Amy Trabert (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) all earned top-10 finishes, and all five scorers recorded personal best times to lead the Daemen College women's cross country team to a strong showing at the Harry F. Anderson Invitational hosted by Roberts Wesleyan College on its campus.  Daemen accumulated 104 points to finish third in the final team standings from today's meet.

The host RWC Redhawks topped the 20-team field with just 51 points today.  All five Redhawk scorers finished 22nd or better, including three runners in the top five.  SUNY Fredonia (86 points) was next, edging Daemen for second place honors.  

Gabrielle Kennelley of Gannon University set the pace individually, winning the race with a time of 17:51.7.  Gannon (161 points) finished seventh in the team standings.

Donahue was the star of stars for Daemen today, completing the 5K course in 18:19.0 to finish as the race runner-up (out of 205 competitors).  Her time today is a career-best for the 5K distance and it also established a new school record.  Donahue had previously set the bar with a time of 18:29.2 at this same event during her freshman season (September 28, 2013).  It also marked Donahue's second runner-up finish of the season, having previously done so at the season-opening Le Moyne Alumni Short Course Invitational on September 5, and it's the fourth runner-up finish of her career.  She's now totaled 12 top-10 finishes in 15 careeer races for the Wildcats.

Rice continued her solid season with a second top-10 finish on the year, completing the course in 18:50.0 to come in seventh place.  Rice's time also set a personal best for her in competition for the Wildcats.  Her previous top time was 18:53.36 at the East Coast Conference Championships on October 27, 2013.

Trabert rounded out the Wildcats' top-10 performers today, finishing ninth with a time of 18:56.6.  She too set a new personal benchmark, shaving more than a minute off her previous best 5K time (20:12.8) which was accomplished here at this event last season (September 27, 2014).

The Donahue-Rice-Trabert triumvirate has now accounted for Daemen's top three finishers, in one order or another, in five-straight races dating back to last season.

Junior Brittany Denton (Oakfield, N.Y./Oakfield-Alabama) and senior Brooke Nolan (Depew, N.Y./Depew) also scored for Daemen today.  Denton finished in 35th place with a personal-best time of 19:41.3.  Like Rice, her previous career-best came at the 2013 ECC Championships (20:13.2), but she shattered that today with her first sub-20-minute 5K race.  Not to be out-done was Nolan whose personal-best time of 20:16.9 was good for 51st place.  She had previously run a 5K-best of 20:23 at this event on September 29, 2012 during her freshman campaign.

Daemen, under the direction of first-year head coach Paul Lagno, is back in action next Saturday, October 3 at the Mike Woods Invitational hosted by SUNY Geneseo at Letchworth State Park.

For continuing coverage on the Daemen women's cross country team throughout the season, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenXC on Twitter.