STILLWATER, Okla. – On Halloween day, the West Virginia University cross country team placed third at the 2015 Big 12 Cross Country Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

 

 

The Mountaineers totaled a team score of 118 in the women’s 6k championship race.

 

“Boy that was puzzling,” said coach Sean Cleary. “With a third-place finish we’re thrilled. The way we’ve been running this year, realistically, if we were third we knew we would maximize our team spot out here in the Big 12, but I know deep down inside we’re still much better. I’m not sure how much better, but I know we’re a better team than we ran today. We trained extremely well over the last few weeks.”

 

No. 23 Oklahoma State, the championship’s host, won the Big 12 title with a team score of 34 points. No. 11 Iowa State came in second with a score of 52, followed by WVU in third (118), Kansas in fourth (129), Oklahoma in fifth (152), Texas in sixth (158), Kansas State in seventh (193), Baylor in eighth (195), Texas Tech in ninth (196) and TCU in 10th (292).

 

Three West Virginia underclassmen posted top-25 finishes. Sophomore Maggie Drazba crossed the line first for the Mountaineers and 19th overall with a time of 21:32.5. Sophomore Millie Paladino came in second for WVU and 21st overall, finishing in 21:34.3, followed by sophomore Brynn Harshbarger in 22nd (21:40.4).

 

“I thought some of the girls today, Millie and Anna, really stuck themselves in the front early,” said Cleary. “I applaud their efforts to really take control of the race up front. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to hold on. In the future I think this experience will help them a great deal.”

 

Sophomore Amy Cashin finished 26th overall with a time of 21:47.6. Freshman Anna French raced in her first Big 12 Conference Championship and finished 31st with a time of 21:55.2. Senior Savanna Plombon took 33rd in 22:05.0, followed by senior Kelly Williams in 35th in 22:07.2, junior Brianna Kerekes in 37th (22:10.4), sophomore Corinne Kule in 71st (23:22.5) and sophomore Rachel Faulds in 77th (23:47.7).

 

“I expect us to train extremely well over the next 10 days,” said Cleary. “Hopefully we can put it all together at the NCAA Regional Championship. Today may have helped our cause to slip into the championship meet, but time will tell.”

 

Up next for the Mountaineers is the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, in Princeton, N.J., on Friday, Nov. 13.