Cross Country (M & W) | 9/15/2018 11:33:00 PM

MONTREAL -- Elizabeth Hirsch of Melrose, Mass., posted a silver-medal finish, leading the McGill University Martlets to capture their own meet title at the McGill Open as the RSEQ cross-country season opened Saturday on the slopes of Mt. Royal.

The women's team victory marked the third consecutive year that the Martlets have won their home meet and their eighth McGill Open title in 26 years. McGill scored 27 points to finish first of 23 schools atop the podium, followed by the Montreal Carabins and Sherbrooke, who tied with 82 points apiece.

Hirsch, a 20-year-old biology junior, finished the four-kilometre race in 14 minutes flat. The 5-foot-7 distance specialist was 16 seconds behind Laval's Anne-Marie Comeau, who won the 216-runner field with a course record time of 13:44. McGill's Meggie Dargis claimed bronze in 14:25.

Other scorers for the title-winning Martlets included Laura Vanderweyer (6th, 15:17), a civil engineering senior from France, Sandrine Veillette (7th, 14:47), a management sophomore from Quebec City, Morgane Butler (9th, 14:54), a physiology senior from Sudbury, Mass., and Chloe Fleurent-Gregoire (11th, 14:58), a dietetics junior from Laval, Que.

On the men's side, Laval took the team title, finishing first of 24 schools in the scoring with 37 points. Joining them atop the podium was Sherbrooke (77 points) and the Vainqueurs, a club team that scored 112 points. The McGill Redmen only had four runners, one shy of qualifying for the team scoring.

Patrice Labonté of the Vainqueurs, completed the six-kilometre circuit in a course record 18:34, finishing first of 236 competitors. Marc-André Trudeau-Perron of College André-Grasset (19:45) took silver for Laval, and Maxime Lopes of UQAM finished third in 18:51.

Leading the way for McGill was Santiago Bessai, a fifth-year English senior from Toronto, who finished fifth in 19:12, some 37 seconds ahead of his time in last year's meet.

Other McGill runners included bioresource engineering sophomore Thomas Csisztu (26th, 20:29) of Pembroke, Ont., Hugo Schutzberg (27th, 20:30) a materials engineering sophomore from Cambridge, Mass., and Guillaume Menard (38th, 21:01), a master's student from Sherbrooke, Que.

McGill's next meet is the Laval Open on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City on Sept. 22.

LINK TO COMPLETE RESULTS