GEORGETOWN, TEXAS - The Southwestern University Women's Cross Country team traveled down to Kerrville, Texas where they competed in the Mountaineer Invite 6K, a meet hosted by Schreiner University. The Pirates were first to cross the finish line with a team score of 29! Four women finished with times in the top 10!

Head Coach Joe Sponsel shared his thoughts post meet saying, "I was pretty confident in the team's ability to be successful at this meet after seeing them in training the last few weeks, on a flatter course, and building on some self-efficacy after a great first meet. So I put a little extra pressure on them in the team meeting the night before and told them so. That I thought they could be the top D3 team and win the meet. I wanted to challenge them to perform with that idea in their heads. If we could do that, then we'd be much better prepared for some extra pressure, expectations, and energy when we host the conference championships and at the regional meet. And they responded really well. I think just about everybody ran a 6k opening best time, a PR, or ran a faster 5k split in this race than in our first meet which was a 5k only. We did a great job of staying in our groups like we've been working on in training all year long and had a really good first 6k of the year. We talked about changing our internal measurement of the race from 'oh the 6k is a new distance, I don't know how to race that' to 'this is a race with three laps, and each lap has a purpose and instructions'. I think that really helped them stay focused on things that we control and directly contribute to us getting the best out of the fitness we've been building. We're right back this week, and will be even better once we get a few more runners back from injury/sickness." 

MEET HIGHLIGHTS

• Isabel Sainz - Our number 1 runner for the second week in a row, and had a 32 second PR

• Addison Jackson - Our top freshmen and number 2 again, sub 24 in her first 6k

• Sophie Sullivan - Ran a 5k PR in our opener, and ran another 30 second 5k PR in the middle of the 6k today

• Casey Gilbert - 2 for 2 on PR's this year, grabbed a 7 second PR this race

SOUTHWESTERN RESULTS

Isabel Sainz - 23:50.8

Addison Jackson - 23:58.0

Breanna Steele - 24:21.4

Casey Gilbert - 25:35.5

Sophie Sullivan - 25:46.7

Hallie Martinez - 25:56.9

Irene Ramirez - 26:41.5

Emily Chaires - 26:46.2 

Abigayle Stubby-Kern - 26:47.4

Elizabeth Upton - 27:19.7

Sarah Rothe - 27:23.6

Sylvia Baldwin - 28:10.9

Lily Russell - 30:46.4

UP NEXT

• Southwestern Cross Country is off to Fayetteville, Arkansas on October 4th where they are competing in the Chile Pepper XC Festival hosted by the NCAA.