Submitted Photo Fredonia’s Emily Brown running in Saturday’s Pembroke Invitational.

OBSERVER Staff Report

PEMBROKE — The Fredonia girls cross country team finished with a strong second-place finish at the Pembroke Invitational with Emily Brown leading the way and winning the race with a time of 20:02.

Other top finishers for Fredonia were Hannah Gullo (20:43), Savannah Lashbrook (21:18), Anna Buchanan (22:33), Ashlyn Ambrose (22:40), Ashley Holt (24:04) and Claire Stokes (24:55).

“The girls raced well on a physically challenging course,” Fredonia coach Carol Zirkle said. “Winning an invitational takes staying focused and being mentally tough over the entire course. Emily has gotten better and better this year at planning her race strategy and sticking to that plan. Hannah ran a great last half of the race and finished strong. Savannah, Anna and Ashlyn raced well and are getting stronger each week.”

The boys overall standings were not reported to the OBSERVER.

Diego Rey led the boys team to a third-overall finish with a time of 17:22. He was followed by Alec Schrader (18:01), Peter Calanni (18:44), Chris Annear (19:04), Kevin Redfield (19:40) and Grayson Pratt (19:46).

“Diego ran a strong race. Alec and Chris had strong performances today and have started closing the gap with the top runner, Zirkle said. “The smaller our 1-5 gap the better our team performs.

“Today’s race helps prepare the team for the league and Sectional championships,” she continued. “The course was challenging, the weather was great and we had the opportunity to race against Section 5 competition. The athletes rose to the occasion.”