Drew's Steve Monteleone took fourth place and Sarah Morris placed 11th as the Ranger Cross Country teams competed at the Catholic University Invitational on Saturday.  The women placed fourth of five as a team while the men's squad was last of four squads.  The meet featured a handful of Landmark teams in a small preview of the conference championship event later this season. 

Drew's men's team got a pair of great performances, but came up just a few seconds short in the 3-5 spots to place fourth.  Monteleone continued to impress in his first season with the Rangers by taking fourth place – fifth overall – over the 8K Course.  The sophomore ran his best 8K of the season, posting a 29:20.32, a 35 seconds improvement.  It is also the third time this season that Monteleone has finished in the Top 10 of a race.  The other key result for Drew was the eight-place finish of Zack Mower.  Another rookie on the squad, Mower clocked a 30:28 for his first Top 10 of the season. 

Every other Ranger placed in the Top 25 led by Maxwell Rich's 16th place showing.  Senior Greg Del Russo put in his best performance of the season by taking 21st place and running his best 8K of the season at 33:35.65.  As a team, Drew finished in fourth place with a combined 2:38.40.04 just 1:36 behind third place Catholic.  With the good showings from Mower, Monteleone, Rich and Del Russo, the Rangers can hope for a more typical performance from junior Andrew Elhert, a consistent 32:00 runner who was over three minutes of his usual pace on Saturday, at the Landmark Conference Championship meet that is held on this same course in late October.

The women's team placed fourth of five, spurred on by four Top 25 finishes.  Sarah Morris led the way with an 11th place finish at 27:27.12.  Katherine Cross continued to run well, taking 16th place at 28:16.07.  Ashley Walker and Carley Thompson rounded out Drew's Top 25 finishers. 

The Rangers finished ahead of Gallaudet, the lone non-Landmark team at the meet.  Catholic's women's team just beat out Juniata for first place with Goucher in third.