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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mike Robinson Leads Mansfield Men to Season Opening Win Over Bloomsburg and West Chester in 2013 Opener – Jess Scordino Second Overall in Women's Competition

MANSFIELD – Mike Robinson took top honors to lead the Mansfield University men's cross country team to a pair of season opening wins over West Chester and Bloomsburg at the Flatland Invitational Saturday morning at Mansfield's Lambs Creek course.

All-American Jess Scordino paced the women's team to a second place overall finish behind Bloomsburg in the women's race.

"I could tell in preseason that the men's team would be better than anyone thought," said head coach Mike Rohl. "They showed that today and surprised some people. While Mike Robinson has already earned a lot of respect around the conference, the top 10 showing today by Will Mullen, Jesse Jones and Ben Drexler was impressive."

Robinson glided to a winning time of 15:55.77 in the season opener, outpacing Bloomsburg's Kyle Phillips (15:56.50) in a close finish. West Chester's Zach Musselman (16:07.40) was third.

Mansfield got strong finishes from Will Mullen who was fifth overall with a time of 16:13.40 over the 5k course. Jesse Jones, a sophomore, placed seventh at 16:24.30 while freshman Ben Drexler had an impressive collegiate debut finishing ninth overall (16:39.43).

Junior Joelson Resimo was the Mountaineers fifth best finisher at 16:43.85.

Mansfield finished with 33 team points to West Chester's 39. Bloomsburg was third with 49 points.

The women's race featured an early season dual between two of the top 10 runners in the country in Bloomsburg's Victoria Davis and Mansfield's Jess Scordino. The two veterans ran together for most of the race until Davis edged in front late with an impressive early season time of 17:21.91 to Scordino's 17:24.97 over the 5,000 meter distance.

"We were a little short-handed for the opener," said Rohl. "But even without all of our runners we were as good as people thought we would be. Jess and Davis of Bloomsburg are two of the best there are in NCAA Division II and they will be seeing each other again."

Amanda Eisman of West Chester took third with Kristy Scordino, Jess's twin sister, placing fifth at 18:39.76. Senior Savannah Boucher was 10th with a time of 19:50.71. Freshman Destiny Foster was the Mountaineers fourth runner, finishing 17th overall at 20:16.46 in her first college race.

Fellow freshman Allison McCurry (20:07.96), junior Susan Learn (20:08.34) and freshman Destiny Foster (20:16.46) came in at 15th, 16th and 17th respectively.

Bloomsburg won the women's competition with 32 team points followed by Mansfield with 45 points and West Chester (54) third.
Mansfield travels to Lock Haven on Sept. 21.