St. Lawrence University’s women’s cross country team was just two points away from perfection and a pair of newcomers made impressive debuts as the Saints won the Plattsburgh Cardinal Classic Cross Country Invitational on Saturday to open the 2012 season.

Margaret MacDonald ran 18:51.0 to win her first collegiate cross country race by 16 seconds over classmate Ella Martin, who was second in 19:07.

The Saints placed five in the top six with only Plattsburgh junior Kelley Driscoll sliding in at fourth to keep the Saints from a perfect 15 point performance. SLU won the three-team competition with 17 points with Plattsburgh second with 41 and Clarkson third with 80.

Junior Amy Cymerman was third for the Saints, just .5 behind Martin while junior Ariel Beccia was fifth in 19:15.8 and grad student Lizzy Edwards completed the Saint top five with a sixth place finish in 19:19.6. Sophomore Anne Martino was the sixth finisher for the Saints in 19:55.6 and senior Jess Marini, running her first collegiate cross country meet after concentrating on track and field prior to this season, finished 11th in 20:07.2 to complete the Saint top seven.

The trio of Kelsey Leder, Jackie Lemme and Caroline Raue finished in a row at 13 through 15 with Leder running 20:16.6, Lemme 20:22.7 and Raue 20;25.7. Toria Koutras was 190th in 21:15.7, Madeline Funk was 20th in 21:27.8, Jenny Van Ooyen was 24th in 21:59.0, Katie Mannix was 27th in 22:19.4 and Machele Clark was 28th in 22:22.9.