(Grand Rapids, MI) – The Women's Cross Country team run to a ninth place finish in the WHAC Championships on Friday, November 8. The team finished 61 points behind Lourdes University and 53 points ahead of Defiance College. The women ran to seven personal bests on the day.
Michaela Kurth (Sophomore; Ypsilanti, MI) ran to a new personal best time of 26:20 to lead the Cardinals. Amanda Fogo (Junior; Fowlerville, MI) improved her personal best time by 1:07 to be the second women to finish with a time of 27:01. Fogo earned her sixth personal best time of the year. She was closely followed by Grace Finley (Sophomore; Monroe, MI). Finley continued to see big improvements this season by cutting 1:24 from earlier in the year. Finley finished her race with a final time of 27:10. Rachael Byers (Sophomore; Plymouth, MI) ran to her second straight personal best race with a time of 27:55, cutting 38 seconds off her previous best time. Chloe Gunter (Senior; Monroe, MI) ran to her personal best time of 28:03 to finish off the team scoring. Gunter improved her time by a total of 1:30. Macee Ripke (Sophomore; Napoleon, OH) finished her race with a total time of 28:05. Alison Doerr (Junior; Grand Haven, MI) ran to a personal best time of 28:56 and cut 29 seconds off her previous time. Jenna Oberly (Sophomore; Dearborn, MI) earned a huge improvement, cutting 2:48 off her previous time and running a new personal best time of 29:16.
"I am so proud of these ladies. They showed for the second straight race of running confident and strong. They are attacking each mile and challenging each other and running together. While it didn't come together for us to finish higher, we have developed a great core and had the third best difference in time between our first and fifth runner, which is awesome to see this pack running. I think this confidence and big gains the last two weeks lead us into a big race next week," said Head Coach Dominic Santina.
The women will wrap up their season at the NCCAA National Championships on Friday, November 15 at Warsaw High School in Warsaw, Indiana.
