The Falcon women’s cross country team had a strong showing in its home opener Saturday at the Mel Brodt Invitational.

BG scored 46 team points, finishing second among five Division I teams and second overall out of 13 teams. Dayton won the D-1 team title, placing the first five runners of the meet.

Four BG runners finished in the top 10 among D-1 runners, with freshman Abby Koch leading the way, finishing sixth with a time of 18:45.

Andrea Pereira de Almeida (8th; 18:47), Carly Wells (9th; 18:52), Ashley Fischer (10th; 18:53), Autumn Dettmann (13th; 19:11), and Sally Jerop (15th; 19:17) were among six BG runners to place in the top 25 for BG.

Also in competition for BG were Megan Kelsey (19:44), Mindy Henry (19:53), and Courtney Krummert (20:24).

‘The women were very aggressive and they fought hard,’ said coach Cami Wells. ‘I was very pleased with their effort.’

BG will compete this Saturday in the Bronx at the Iona Meet of Champions.

Wells said she’s looking forward to seeing how the women can improve, especially since they competed Saturday without two of their top runners, Barbara Powers and Heather Conger.

‘I told the team to be patient, knowing that they want to run the best they can as soon as possible,’ Wells said. ‘We can be a really strong team when fully healthy.’