Lions open season with strong 2nd place finish at Bruins XC Night Classic
The Mars Hill women's cross country team finished 2nd out of 16 teams in their season opening meet, the Bruins XC Night Classic.
GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Mars Hill women's cross country team finished 2nd out of 16 teams in their season opening meet, the Bruins XC Night Classic on Friday night. The meet was hosted by Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina and the ladies raced over the 4k race distance. The Lady Lions were led up front by a group of four who ran as a tight pack for more than the first half of the race. Of note to the team scoring, two of the Lady Lions projected top six runners were missing from the lineup this evening.
Setting the pace for her teammates over the first few laps, redshirt freshman Sophie Ratcliff finished in third place with a time of 15:14. Her teammate Natalee Powers was hot on her heels in 5th place with a time of 15:26. Finishing 9th overall with a breakthrough race was Lola Korth in a time of 15:50 and who was followed closely by Grace Adams in 11th with a time of 16:00. Rounding out the team scoring for the evening was Fernanda Osuna in her first time as a point scorer for the Lady Lions!
Thoughts from Coach Benge:
"We have an incredible group of returning and new ladies who are all in equal or better shape from the last cross country season. The first race is always exciting to see the hard work of the summer pay off and watch the team begin to work together in a race atmosphere. Unfortunately due to sickness, we were missing two of our projected top six runners and multiple other team members and we look forward to them joining us on our next race. We saw excellent pack running from the top four ladies over the first few kilometers that started the ladies near the back of the pack and they slowly advanced through the crowd over the middle kilometers to finish with a slight push toward the finish in the last kilometer. A special shout out to Fernanda with her first race finishing in the top five scoring runners here at Mars Hill!
In the pre-season conference rankings, the ladies team was unexpectedly projected to finish one spot lower than we finished last season, so that is a bit of added motivation for the season as we aim to continue our movement up the conference and regional rankings. When they are back to full strength, the ladies will be a formidable team - and potentially the fastest team in Mars Hill history! Keep a lookout for the Lady Lions this season!"
To view the full list of results, please click here.
Mars Hill next runs at the Queen City Invite on Friday, September 12th at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. The race is set for a 6 p.m. start.
