The defending NCAA Women's Champions Georgetown Hoyas got their season underway at the Dartmouth Invitational over the weekend, leaving right where they left off. Led by All-Americans Rachel Schneider and Madeline Chambers, Georgetown easily defeated the field in the five team invite, scoring a mere 33 points and placing their top five in the top ten spots. Dartmouth finished second overall with 57 points.

Running a 22 second 1-5 split, Georgetown left off where they finished last season, in first place. Schneider and Chambers, neither having run during the 2011 fall season, paced the squad by finishing third and fifth over the 5.95k course. Chambers' fellow sophomore Annamarie Maag finished sixth overall, while Emily Jones and Kirsten Kasper rounded out their scoring in ninth and tenth place.

Individually, Dartmouth junior Abbey D'Agostino ran away from the field, easily winning in a time of 20:48. More impressive was her 35 second margin of victory. D'Agostino, who finished third at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2011, is coming off a stellar track season, which saw her narrowly miss earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team in the 5,000m event. While the season is still young, D'Agostino showed over the weekend that she'll most certainly contend for the national title this fall.

For both Georgetown and D'Agostino, the results of the Dartmouth Invitational show they are lined up for a fall of very big performances.

Georgetown Race Recap / Dartmouth Race Recap / Dartmouth Invitational Race Results