Mary Baldwin newcomer Nicky Black continued her stellar first year of collegiate cross country Friday by placing second out of 45 runners in the Shenandoah University Twilight Open.

Black covered the 5,000-meter course in 19:53.6, less than a second ahead of Dickinson College's Sarah Coates for the silver medal in the race.  Dickinson's Meghan Higgins-Haas captured top honors, defeating Black and Coates by 24 seconds.  Black led MBU to third place in the team standings (83 points) behind Dickinson (23) and Shenandoah (50) and ahead of Potomac State (89).

Also in the Top 10 for the Fighting Squirrels was senior Caroline Motley, who finished ninth in 20:34.5 and in a pack of three runners that crossed the finish line within two seconds of each other.  Motley joined Black in posting their person best times of the season.

Other scorers for the Fighting Squirrels were senior Johannah Dillaway (35th overall, 24:51.9), freshman Ashley Bennett (41st, 27:01.0) and junior Mya Gaudier (42nd, 27.22.1).

In the men's chase, senior Brendan Plogger placed 29th overall and sophomore Micah Ahearn-Wood was 30th to lead the Fighting Squirrels to fourth place out of five teams.  Plogger crossed the finish line in the 6,000-meter race in 22:20.3 while Ahearn-Wood was just four seconds behind his teammate.

Also contributing to MBU's team score were sophomore Daniel Diaczyszyn (44th, 24:50.9), junior David Shultz (45th, 26:26.5) and junior Brandon Jones (47th, 29:32.1).  Plogger, Ahearn-Wood and Jones all outkicked their opponents down the stretch to the finish line to help MBU edge Potomac State for fourth place.

MBU's next cross country action will be Saturday, Sept. 28 in the Dickinson Long/Short meet at Big Spring High School in Newville, Pa.