Lady Lions finish 4th out of DII teams at Queen City Invite
The Mars Hill women's cross country team finished a strong 4th place of NCAA Division II teams in competition and placed 12th of 20 teams overall at the Queen City Invite, hosted at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday evening over the 5k race distance.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Mars Hill women's cross country team finished a strong 4th place of NCAA Division II teams in competition and placed 12th of 20 teams overall at the Queen City Invite, hosted at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday evening over the 5k race distance. The women had an opportunity to race an array of Division 1 competition such as Wake Forest, UNC Charlotte, and Queens University among others. The Lions were led up front by a strong opening 5k race from redshirt Sophie Ratcliff. With this early season time of 18:52, Sophie enters herself into the Mars Hill University record books as the fastest freshman in the history of Mars Hill University over the 5k race distance
Following closely behind Sophie was a pack of three more Lady Lions. Mary Malcolm opened her season with a time of 19:23 with Natalee Powers and Lola Korth close on her heels with times of 19:38 and 19:40. Rounding out the top six team positions was Grace Adams in a time of 20:26 and Alleigh Flewwellin in a time of 20:34.
With her time over the 5k race distance, redshirt freshman Sophie Ratcliff will move into the #1 freshman 5k position and and the #6 overall position on the Mars Hill Women's Cross Country 5k Top 25 All-Time record board. Grace, Mary, and Natalee hold positions 11, 13, and 17 on the Top 25 All-Time 5k record board from last season and they are now joined by Lola Korth who earned herself a spot at #21 on the same record board. Alleigh Flewwellin also earned a spot at #23 on the freshman 5k leaderboard. As this is just the first 5k race this fall, the ladies will look to advance higher on the record board throughout the season.
Thoughts from Coach Benge:
"It was nice to have all our team rejoin us for the first 5k race of the season after missing so many people with sickness at our first race of the season. The ladies have a shot to be real contenders to move into the Top 5 in the conference and Top 10 in the region this year if they can continue to work together as a team and build on this performance for the next two months. The ladies finished last season with an average 5k time of 19:30 and they are starting off the season with a time of 19:36, so we are in a very strong place to start this season. Keep a lookout for the Lady Lions this season!"
To view the full list of times, please click here.
The Mars Hill women's cross country team next competes at Pre-Conference on Saturday, September 27th. That race is being held in Tusculum, Tennessee and is set for a 9 a.m. start.
