Both the men’s and women’s cross-country team were back in action on Saturday at Stanley Quarter Park for the Ted Owen Invitational, where the men would win the event while the women finished second.

On the men’s side, senior Alex Norstrom won the even while juniors Roberto Piotto and Richard Grudzwick finished tied for second. All three Blue Devils were within a tenth of a second of one another.

Head coach Eric Blake was pleased to see Grudzwick running toe-to-toe with Norstrom and Piotto, who have now been the team’s top two finishers in both events this year.

“He (Grudzwick) is a big talent, so he should be up there with those guys. He put a good summer of running in, so he belongs up there,” Blake said.

On the women’s side, Blue Devils represented the top two overall finishers as sophomore Angelia Rafter, completing the course in 18 minutes and five seconds, outpacing the second-place finisher by nearly 30 seconds. That runner would be fellow sophomore Megan Brawner, who came in at 18 minutes and 32 seconds.

Prior to the season, Blake said Rafter and Brawner would be the two biggest keys to his team’s success and was expecting the results they provided.

“I actually wasn’t surprised with how they raced because every day at practice you see them, and they can definitely put effort like that in and they belong up there,” Blake said.

He was also pleased with senior Dawn Hubbell, who raced for the first time this season, coming in eighth place overall with at 18 minutes and 56 seconds. Blake said he expects Hubbell to be running up front with Rafter and Brawner.

Despite the strong showing and overall finish, Blake believes the team has “some work to do,” especially when it comes to runners outside the top three.

For the men, junior Julio Arredondo started strong, just trailing the leading trio, but faded to an eighth-place finish. Senior Patrick Halloran finished 55th overall with a time of 30 minutes and 31 seconds. The men only ran five of seven possible runners, still managing to come out on top.

As for the women, freshman Ashley Dana finished 17th overall with a time of 19 minutes and 29 seconds. Sophomore Sabrina Chesters finished within a second of Dana, the final score that was taken for the Blue Devils.

Neither side was at 100 percent, with the women being without senior Madeline Mondo, though Blake said she will be racing “in the near future.”

For the men, they were without sophomore Charles Taubl, who ran at their first event at Bryant as well as sophomore Jonathan Gill, who has yet to race this season. Blake called both runners possible top-five contributors before the season.

Both teams will be back in action on Oct. 6, when they take part in the New England Championships in Boston.

“That will be a completely different competition where you have 30-plus teams in a line,” Blake said of the meet. “It’s a little easier to run as a pack when no one is really around you. It’s going to be a challenge but in two weeks we’ll see if we’re ready. I think we will be.”