The formula below reports the smallest/oldest date in the range
"CNI_002". I have 2 modifications I need to make but am not sure how
to merge them into this.

1) I need to exclude a handful of sells in the range. I have a few
summary rows that have target dates for the different phases in a
project. I have tried changing the source of the range to exclude the
summary rows however my formula fails after making the change. I
currently have "CNI_002" set to "Worksheet!S:S".

2) In the event i have a tie, that is 2 dates that are the same, I
need the topmost (closet to the top of the column) or however you
would describe it, to be the reference cell. Basically column A on
this aheet has a letter code that is associated with a department. In
the event the creative and services departments have a task due on
10/30 i can;t be sure the dependent task from creative will be what is
referenced.

this is the formula:

=IF(COUNT(CNI_002),LOOKUP(MIN(CNI_002),CNI_002,Wor ksheet!A:A),LOOKUP(IF
(COUNTA(CNI_002),CNI_002,Worksheet!A:A),"",""))

Thank you for any help!