Although a young team, the power of the Penn State women's cross country team is not lost, evident in having two sophomores and three freshmen as its top scorers. With only two seniors, three juniors and 11 true freshmen joining the team this year, youth is an obvious factor for the team, but the women refuse to let it hold them back.

A Penn State runner did not place first, or even second, at the Lock Haven University Invitational on Saturday, but they did claim the next three spots in the 6,000-meter race.

"They ran very tough," Penn State women's cross country head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "It was a good start."

Expectedly, Penn State's leading scorer, sophomore Nicki Bohnsack, was the first to cross the line for the team. She placed third out of 134 women with a time of 22:13.15.

West Virginia's Susan Davis, who placed first with a time of 21:48.21, was a national qualifier last year.

"There were two girls from West Virginia and I tried to hang with them as long as I could," Bohnsack said. "I tried to finish really hard and work on my closing kick."

Bohnsack said her performance was "nothing spectacular," but for this early in the season, it was an OK performance.

Shortly after Bohnsack's finish, freshman Janelle Young crossed the line, placing fourth with a time of 22:15.56.

"It basically was my first race in college and I was really, really nervous," Young said. "I wanted to go out hard."

At 22:30.12, sophomore Sonja Hinish crossed the line, placing fifth.

The next two Penn State scorers, freshman Claire Percival, who ran for the Canadian National Team, and freshman Molly Ritter, placed eighth and 11th, respectively, with times of 22:43.91 and 22:53.90 respectively.

"I was really happy with the race. It was a lot of fun," Ritter said. "I was glad that our team won."

It was Ritter's first experience with a team competition. She ran independently in high school as her school did not have a cross country team.

Those top five Penn State finishers gathered a team score of 31 which was enough for a first-place finish.