The Saint Mary’s cross country team returned to action at the Bethel Invitational at St. Joseph’s County Park on Friday, just a few miles north of campus. The team ultimately came in seventh out of 16 teams with 194 points.
This race was the Belles’ first cross country race in a couple of weeks, and simultaneously the last 5K of the season for head coach Jackie Bauters’s team.
“We have a really great group of women this year who have brought great energy all season and are pushing each other in practice,” Bauters said, adding that she was excited to see the team get back to competing.
Bauters was specifically keeping an eye on the packs in the race.
“They have been strong in training and I wanted to see that carry over on race day,” Bauters said.
First-year Ava Gillis was the first of the Saint Mary’s competitors to cross the finish line. As she did so, she took home 15 points with a time of 19:39.50. Only 46 seconds later, her teammate sophomore Amanda Tracy followed her across the line at 20:25.20, taking home 29 points.
Behind Tracy, the rest of the scoring athletes for the Belles were practically paired off. At 20:54:40, a half-second before Kylie Callison from Michigan-Dearborn, senior Riley Swope finished for 42 points. Within 15 seconds, she was followed by first-year Elizabeth Bollinger for 49 points with a time of 21:07:00.
The second pair, junior Anna DeMars (21:27.30) and sophomore Haley Green (21:39.71) finished with 59 and 63 points. They were followed by junior Alexa Zeese (21:51.60) who scored the last of the points, 66, and first-year Susanna Bernovich who finished at 21:57.80.
Julia Bobosky, Brigid Hull, Julia Crowley, Claudia Stiglitz, Emily Blank, Anne Scheck, Charley Lustig, Abby Season and Brigid Conmy all also ran for the Belles and remained tight in their pack.
Bauters said she hopes as they move forward, her team can use this race and build up to the postseason in October, “where the meets mean more.”
The Belles take to the course again Saturday, Oct. 16, to represent Saint Mary’s at the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble. The race begins at 10:30 a.m. ET in Oberlin, Ohio.
