Colby women’s cross country placed second at the Maine Women’s Cross Country Invitational held at Bowdoin College this past weekend. First-year runner Eva Lauer placed second in the race behind Keene State’s Paige Mills. Colby’s men ran the same race but weren’t as successful, finishing in seventh place out of seven.

Tufts University won the women’s race with a score of 49, and the Mules earned runner-up honors by posting a 57. Colby defeated Keene State (60) and New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) foes Bowdoin (72), Bates College (115) and Trinity College (184).

Lauer finished with a time of 22:11.51, 26 seconds behind the winner from Keene State. Four other Mules finished in the top 20: Berol Dewdney ’13 in fourth (22:16.72), Claire Dunn ’13 in 15th (22:03.48), Layne Schwab ’13 in 16th (23.04.52) and Kate Connolly ’14 in 20th (23:26.49).

On the men’s side, Colby finished at the back of the pack with a team score of 190. Tufts swept the weekend with a winning score of 35, while Bates (second place, 56), Bowdoin (third place, 60), Keene State (fourth place, 109), the University of Southern Maine (fifth place, 121) and Trinity (sixth place, 173) rounded out the field.

Brian Desmond ’13 led the men runners with a time of 26:52.24, good for 42nd place, at one minute and 47 seconds off of the winning pace of Tufts’ Matt Rand. Chris Halladay ’12, Ben Lester ’15, Corey Park ’12 and Matthieu Nadeau ’12 were the next four to cross the line for the Mules in 62nd, 63rd, 73rd and 75th places, respectively.

Both the men and women will race this coming weekend at the Williams Invitational at Williams College.