YORK, Pa.--The Hood College cross country teams continued to show improvement despite dropping a dual meet with host York (Pa.) College Saturday.

The Blazer men lost 23-37 and the women fell 19-41.

The Hood men were led by freshman William Andrews and junior Faraz Shoai. Williams turned in the second fastest time in school history with a 29:27 finish, good for second place overall. On his heels was Shoai, who finished in 29:30, the third fastest time in Hood history.

The pair defeated two All-Capital Athletic Conference performers from York who had beaten them last week at the McDaniel College Green Terror Challenge.

Rounding out the men's performance were freshman Blake Rust (ninth in a personal-record 30:47), freshman Blair Ames (11th in a personal-best 32:02) and junior Steve Delaney (13th).

"I was very pleased with the effort today," Hood head coach Brent Ayer said. "York is one of the top three programs in the CAC. For the most part, we ran intelligently and with patience.

"William and Faraz were just excellent. They passed through the mile in ninth and 10th places, didnýt panic and picked off people throughout the race. We want to be competitive in our new conference, and they beat two all-conference performers today."

The Hood women were paced by sophomore Danielle Sgro, who finished third, and junior April Penn, who placed sixth. Sgro led the women's race until the final half mile, when she veered off-course and surrendered a 50-meter lead.

Team scoring was completed by senior Rachel Pectol (9th), junior Julia Blickenstaff (11th) and sophomore Katie Thomas (12th).

"Danielle was focusing so much on her race tactics that she followed the men's course markings off the women's course," Ayer said. "Iýve done similar things and can sympathize. That said, she executed the race plan very well and worked the middle of the race hard. April did a great job over the final mile, picking up five places."

Also setting personal bests for the Blazers were junior Ben Caplins, junior Ryan Jenkins and sophomore Tomilayo Komolafe, as well as freshman Lisa Blickenstaff, who competed in her first-ever cross country meet.

The Blazers travel to Delaware next Saturday to participate in the 10-team Wilmington Invitational.