NEW LONDON, N.H. - The Norwich men's and women's cross country teams opened the 2022 season with a pair of third-place efforts at the Colby-Sawyer Charger Invitational at Morris Trail on Saturday afternoon.

The Cadet men finished in third out of three teams with 65 points, just five behind second-place the hosts. The NU women tallied 79 points to come in third out of four teams, ahead of fellow Great Northeast Athletic Conference foe Lasell.

Sophomore Colby Makin (Westerly, R.I.) led the NU men with a 9th place finish in 17:40.94, while freshman Judson Nash finished just behind in 10th at 17:42.0. Matt Webster claimed 11th behind a 17:54.16 finish, and Nate Palter (Foxborough, Mass.) and Harry Murphy trailed with 17th and 18th-place finishes with times of 18:52.36 and 19:07.59, respectively.

On the women's side, freshman Elena Vargas was just outside the top ten, taking 11th place at 23:29.38. Emmerson Leach (West Gardiner, Maine) trailed almost immediately, checking in at 13th with a 23:42.23 time. Nicole Perault and Shannon Driscoll rounded out the top 20 with finishes in 16th and 18th and times of 25:08.68 and 27:01.83, respectively.

Norwich is back in action on Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Vermont State Meet at Randolph Center, Vt. The meet, hosted by Vermont Tech, is scheduled for 11 a.m. for the women and 12 p.m. for the men.