EMMITSBURG, Md. (September 2, 2016) – Senior Jon Holmes (Albany, N.Y.) opened his final collegiate season with a top-10 finish on Friday afternoon, as he placed ninth at the Mount St. Mary's 5K Duals for the Franklin Pierce University cross country team. At the season-opening meet, the Ravens posted a win over host Mount St. Mary's, but were defeated by American and Maryland, Baltimore County.

Friday's meet was not scored in the traditional method of scoring cross country meets. Instead, each team was scored on a head-to-head basis against each of the other schools in attendance. Franklin Pierce posted a 23-33 win over Mount St. Mary's (with lower scores being better), while suffering a 20-38 defeat at the hands of American and an 18-42 loss to UMBC. American defeated all comers at the meet, posting a 3-0 record, while UMBC went 2-1 in front of the 1-2 Ravens, who outpaced Mount St. Mary's, which finished 0-3.

Individually, Holmes finished the 5K course in 15:53.7, which put him in ninth place out of 83 runners and made him one of 11 athletes to post a time under 16 minutes. Senior Dage Minors (Hamilton Parish, Bermuda) and freshman Aidan Gilbride (East Kilbride, Scotland) also finished in the top 20 for the Ravens, with the former posting a time of 16:07.8 and the latter crossing the line in 16:10.0.

Farther down the ledger for Franklin Pierce, senior B.J. Smith (Concord, N.H.) placed 34th (16:32.1), senior Joey Souza (West Bridgewater, Mass.) finished 55th (17:18.6) and freshman Tyler Hayes (Kings Park, N.Y.) took 58th (17:31.0), to round out the Ravens finishing in the top 60.

The Ravens return to action on Saturday, Sept. 10, when they travel to Northampton, Mass., for the Smith College Cross Country Invitational.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce cross country apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).