The Middlebury cross country teams both turned in strong performances at the Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams Saturday afternoon at the Mt. Greylock Regional High School course in Massachusetts. The men placed seventh in the 23-team field with 204 points, while the eighth-ranked Panther women were 10th out of 23 programs with 221 points.

SUNY Geneseo swept first place in both races with the men earning 48 points and women with 65.

The Middlebury men had all five scoring runners place in the top 50 in the field of 284 runners, led by Brian Rich, who completed the 8k course in 26:11.8 placing 25th. Connor Evans finished 41st overall in 26:43.6 and two spots later Miles Meijer crossed the finish line in 26:45.7. Kevin Serrao ran a time of 26:52.3 to take 47th place and Ascencion Aispuro was the next runner to finish in 26:53.0.

Abigail Nadler had an outstanding race for the Panther women, taking second out of 278 runners in the 6k race with a time of 22:00.8. Meg Wilson finished the course in a time of 23:26.6 to place 45th, while Sasha Whittle was 51st in 23:37.7. Alyssa Taylor was the next Panther finisher when she posted a time of 23:45.4 to finish 58th, while Katherine MacCary rounded out the scorers in 65th (23:51.2).