The women’s cross country team started its season with a nearly flawless performance, grabbing first place at the Maple Leaf Invitational Saturday.

On top of snagging the first place title, the women beat nationally ranked Kansas Wesleyan University.

“We ended up beating Kansas Wesleyan and they were ranked 26 in the national preseason,” head coach Zach Kindler said. “We beat them by 17 points so we were very excited about that.”

The team placed a total of five runners in the top 16 overall, and four of the top five finishers were freshmen.

Freshman Lindsey Brown led the team with a fourth place finish and time of 15 minutes, 41.26 seconds in the 4-kilometer race.

Sophomore Molly Schmeidler, who finished fifth on the team and grabbed a 16th place finish overall, said the women are pleased with their performance and their win over competitors Central Methodist and Kansas Wesleyan.

“We knew that if we beat them that we would be letting everybody know that we got a pretty caliber team going on,” Schmeidler said. “I think everybody is pretty excited with how we are doing.”

The men’s team placed fourth overall, missing the third place spot by a mere two points. With a team consisting of mostly freshmen, junior Chris Scheideman said he was pleased with the way the men finished.

“I thought it was a successful weekend,” Scheideman said. “The top five scorers were all freshmen, I don’t think you can ask for a whole lot more.”

Scheideman, who is red-shirting this season, said the team’s goal was to have a solid performance at the meet and boost morale going into the rest of the season.

He said it was good for the freshmen to get a college race under their belt, and that their success should help the runners gain some confidence.

Because of the youth of both teams, the main goal for the athletes will be successfully adjusting to the longer distance. Kindler said learning to prepare mentally and physically is the key.

“It’s a whole different level,” Kindler said. “The competition is stronger and so it’s something that, as a freshman, can be overwhelming at first and so they will just have to keep growing as athletes.”

The teams have one week off from competition before it heads to the Southern Stampede on Sept. 19 in Joplin, Mo.