HOOVER -- Sophomore Amber Duffin led the BYU women's cross country team to a second place finish at the Great American Invitational in Hoover, Ala. Competing in her first race of the season, Duffin finished third overall in the 5k with a time of 18:47.

"I felt like I ran really well today," said Duffin. "I had a hard training summer and I did what coach told me to do."

"I'm particularly pleased with Amber's performance," said head coach Patrick Shane. "I think she'll be in our top five. She's one of our most improved athletes. She really showed me what I thought she was capable of."

BYU finished second with 54 points behind the University of Alabama-Birmingham's 41 points.

Shane was pleased with the results of his individual runners as well as the depth that emerged during the meet.

"Our depth stepped up and ran a lot better," said Shane. "It was a really positive thing. It was a good meet for us."

Sarah Ingebretsen, a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, was BYU's second finisher with a time of 19:22.

Up next, both the men's and women's teams will prepare for the Bill Dellinger Invitational, hosted by the University of Oregon on Sept. 29.

"Next week at Oregon we will likely put our top five people on the starting line," said Shane. "When we put that group together we'll have a better idea of how good we really are."

PROVO -- The BYU women's cross country team (No. 5) will head down to Birmingham, Ala. to participate in the Great American Cross Country Festival on Saturday, Sept. 29.

The team's last performance was a second place finish at the BYU Autumn Classic.

With the depth of this year's team, head coach Patrick Shane was able to keep several runners out of the Autumn Classic. He intends to continue this method throughout the season. BYU's top runners Kassi Andersen, Breanne Sandberg and Amy Fowler will not compete in the race on Saturday.

"We won't line up with our 'A' team until Pre-Nationals, and even then it won't be as heavy as Nationals," said Shane.

There will be 12 girls making the trip, including, Amber Duffin, Katie Porter, Sarah Ingebretsen, Tawny Bybee, Lisa Frischknecht, Sarah Hansen and Jenna Taylor Jensen.

"This should be a very competitive team," said Shane.

Other schools participating in the meet include: Florida State, Clemson, South Carolina, Alabama and Central Florida.

BYU will compete in the Nike Race of Champions at 10:55 a.m.

The men's team has the week off to prepare to rejoin the women at the Oregon Invitational on Sept. 30.