UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. –Racing in its second meet of the 2018 regular season, the Navy women's cross country team tested itself versus a host of highly ranked regional and national squads at the 2018 Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational on Friday evening. Competing on the 6K course at Penn State's Blue-White Golf Course, the Mids came in ninth place in the team standings. Running with a concerted pack mentality, senior Ali Valenti (Lansdale, Pa.) posted the 45^th best time as the first of five Midshipmen over a span of 24 places.
 
Valenti, a leader for Navy as a junior in 2017, once again found herself leading the pack on Friday as she clocked in with a time of 22:32. Running the competition at a 6:02 pace, Valenti came within five seconds of cracking the top-40. Going shoulder-to-shoulder with her fellow senior, Rachel Fairbanks (Jamesville, N.Y.) placed 46^th overall with a 22:33 result.
 
Team captain Erin McDonnell (Sr., Traverse City, Mich.) came in six seconds back of Fairbanks at 22:39, good for 53^rd place.
 
Another tightly-packed duo of Midshipmen came in 64^th and 69^th in the field as Annika Pearson (Sr., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) completed the course at 23:06, while freshman Kathleen Murphy (Westport, Conn.) posted a 23:16 time.
 
Anna Kovacs, (Toledo, Ohio) another freshman competitor for Navy, placed 74^th with a time of 23:23.
 
Navy's five-scorer spread was the second-lowest at the meet as the span of time between Valenti and Murphy was just 45 seconds. Only Cornell (0:38) had a closer spread. 
 
Penn State, the 12^th ranked program in the nation, captured the event win with 32 team points. The host Nittany Lions had four of the top-seven finishers, including Julia Paternain, the overall individual champion. No. 23 Syracuse and No. 25 Georgetown finished second and third in the team standings with 55 and 73 points, respectively. Cornell (87) and West Virginia (127) rounded out the top-five.
 
In a tight conglomeration of teams six through nine, St. Joseph's (204), Pittsburgh (209), American (213) and Navy (215) were separated by just 11 points. Grove City (314) placed 10 of 10 teams as the event.
 
"Looking at the results you'd think we had a sub-par race, but in actuality we ran very well," exclaimed head coach Karen Boyle. "We strategically left three of our top runners at home this week so they aren't racing three straight weeks and challenged our next 3-4 women to step up and lead today. Ali, Rachel, Erin and Annika accepted that challenge and ran exceptional races. Kathleen and Anna ran tough today and finished fifth and sixth for us in their first ever 6k.
 
"The meets in September are all training races for the important competitions down the road in October, beating Army and winning the Patriot League Championship."
 
Navy will be back in action at home next Saturday morning with the 2018 Salty Dog Invitational. Competition for the Mids at the USNA Cross Country Course gets underway at 9:00 a.m. on Sept. 15.