BUFFALO, N.Y. - On a brisk fall afternoon in Delaware Park, the regionally-ranked Daemen College women's cross country team finished sixth ouf of 10 competing teams at the Canisius Alumni Invitational.

Junior Mackenzie Donahue (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) continued her fine career and season, placing eighth out of 129 competitors in today's 5K race with a time of 18:32.0.  Donahue, who has already broken school records for both the 5K and 6K distances this season, has now totaled 13 top-10 finishes in 17 career races for the Wildcats.  Today's eighth-place finish is Donahue's third top-10 performance of the season.

Daemen also got strong outings from junior Hannah Rice (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) and sophomore Amy Trabert (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst).  Rice finished in 18th place with a time of 19:09.8, while Trabert came in 22nd with her time of 19:20.0.  With Rice and Trabert following Donahue, today's race marked the seventh consecutive event that the trio has finished as Daemen's top three, in one order or another.

Junior Brittany Denton (Oakfield, N.Y./Oakfield-Alabama) and senior Brooke Nolan (Depew, N.Y./Depew) rounded out Daemen's scorers today.  Denton ran the course in 20:09.3 to come in 40th place, while Nolan (20:50.2) finished in 50th place.

Today's race marked Daemen's first outing since competing in the Mike Woods Invitational on October 3.  The Wildcats, under the leadership of first-year head coach Paul Lagno, have been ranked in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Regional Rankings in each of the last three weeks, including their No. 5 ranking for the East Region this past week.

NCAA Division I Cornell University sat atop the team standings today, placing all five of its scorers in the top seven finishers to compile just 21 points.  The Big Red were paced by race-winner Jacquelyn Katzman who topped the field with her time of 18:05.2.  Canadian school Laurentian University (63 points) featured race runner-up Katie Wismer (18:06.9) to edge the host Golden Griffins (78 points) who finished third.

Other NCAA Division I teams competing today included University of Detroit Mercy (fifth place), Niagara University (seventh place) and Robert Morris University (eighth place).

Daemen is prepped and poised to compete in next week's East Coast Conference Championships.  The conference championship meet is set for Saturday, October 24 on the campus of Long Island University Post in Brookville, N.Y.