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Mountaineers Place First in Blue Race
October 03, 2015 04:16 PM | Cross Country
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The No. 13 West Virginia University cross country team won the women’s 5k blue race at the Greater Louisville Classic at EP Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky, earlier today.
“While it’s always fun winning, the reality is that we need 15-20 seconds of improvement per girl over the next few weeks,” said coach Sean Cleary.
West Virginia had three sophomores finish in the top-5, while posting a winning score of 32 points. Out of the 10 WVU runners on the course, six – including the sophomore trio – finished in the top-15.
Sophomores Maggie Drazba, Brynn Harshbarger and Amy Cashin all took home top-5 finishes. Drazba finished second overall in a season-best time of 17:36.79 followed by Harshbarger, who finished fourth overall (17:53.03). Cashin finished fifth overall, recording a personal best of 17:57.21.
“This was a small step on the right direction,” said Cleary. “We are well aware that we have to continue improving if we want to reach our goals for the season, but we enjoyed today, and we keep working on our weaknesses.”
Senior Kelly Williams was the fourth Mountaineer to cross the line, placing eighth overall (18:03.92), followed by senior Savanna Plombon, who took 13th overall with a season-best of 18:09.45. Junior Brianna Kerekes recorded a personal-best time of 18:10.84, while placing 14th overall.
Junior Rachel Faulds finished 38th overall (18:42.75), Allie Diehl finished 73rd overall (19:06.13) and Corinne Kule took 78th with a time of 19:09.36. Sophomore Rebecca Wendt competed for the first time as a Mountaineer, placing 83rd overall with a personal best of 19:12.26.
The women’s blue race included 33 schools. Mississippi took second with 94 points, Oakland University took third with 97 points, Tennessee took fourth with 119 points and Taylor took fifth with 207 points.
“I am confident that this group will do what is required to see results. We have two weeks to prepare for Wisconsin,” said Cleary. “We are hoping for similar improvements that we saw the past two.”
The Mountaineers have two weeks off from competition before heading to Madison, Wisconsin, to compete at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational on Friday, Oct. 16.
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