Lady Lions become fastest team in Mars Hill history at Royals Cross Country Challenge
The Mars Hill women's cross country team ran to a new school record team average time of 19:14 to finish an extremely strong 8th place of 23 NCAA Division II teams and placed 13th of 37 teams overall at the Royals XC Challenge, 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 an extremely strong 8th place of 23 NCAA Division II teams and placed 13th of 37 teams overall at the Royals XC Challenge, hosted at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday evening over the 5k race distance.
With a team average time of 19:14, this is by far the fastest Mars Hill women's cross country team in history - faster than all of the Mars Hill women's teams who qualified for the NCAA DII National Championship in the early 2000s.
The Lions continue to be led by Sophie Ratcliff up front who finished with a new personal best time of 18:35. Following close behind were Mary Malcolm and Natalee Powers in new personal best times of 18:56 and 18:57, both breaking the 19 minute barrier for the first time. Rounding out the record-breaking team score for the Lady Lions was Lola Korth and Grace Adams in times of 19:44 and 19:58.
Sophie Ratcliff, Mary Malcolm, and Natalee Powers elevated their positions on the all-time Mars Hill Women's Cross Country 5k Leaderboard as the 5th, 9th, and 10th fastest runners in school history over the 5k distance. Additionally, Sophie cemented her position as the fastest freshman in Mars Hill Women's Cross Country history by breaking her own record with a new fastest time of 18:35.
Thoughts from Coach Benge:
"The women had a very strong showing with new personal best times from the top three ladies and excellent runs throughout the team. Each runner was able to work through the pack and pass multiple people in the second half and last mile of the race. It was very exciting and emotional for the ladies to crush the previous school record time with a team average of 19:14 and become the new fastest women's team in the history of Mars Hill Women's Cross Country! There have been some very good women's teams at Mars Hill in the past that qualified for the national championship, so this is a huge honor. The ladies will look to carry this momentum forward to the South Atlantic Conference Championship in two weeks!"
To view the full list of times, please click here.
The Mars Hill women's cross country team next competes at the South Atlantic Conference Championship on Saturday, October 25th. That race is being held in Greeneville, Tennessee and is set for a 10 a.m. start.
