Oct. 2, 2009
Results
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Guided by Amy Watson's (Sr./Hampstead, Md.) 28th-place time out of 363 runners, the Navy women's cross country team placed 12th among 40 schools at the competitive Paul Short Run on Friday.
No. 4 West Virginia won the meet with 105 points to just edge out Guelph's 127 points. Indiana placed third with 143 points, while N.C. State landed in fourth with 153 points and Cornell completed the top five with its 183 points. In total, 21 of the Division I teams in Friday's race were ranked in their respective region's top 15 coming into the week.
The Midshipmen, the ninth-ranked team in the Mid-Atlantic Region and preseason Patriot League favorite, boasted the lowest team score - 450 points - among the six league schools competing in Friday's race: Bucknell (13th - 465 points), Colgate (26th - 708 points), Lehigh (30th - 750 points), Army (31st - 751 points) and Lafayette (35th - 875 points). In addition, the Mids finished higher than La Salle, who placed 14th as a team after entering the race ranked two spots ahead of Navy in the regional rankings.
Watson completed the 6k course in 21:06 to finish 1:08 behind individual champion Neely Spence from Shippensburg. The Navy senior has boasted the team's fastest time in each of her last-nine races, dating back to the start of the 2008 campaign.
Brigid Byrne (Fr./Vienna, Va.) landed in 83rd place with a time of 21:49 and was followed seven seconds later by Katie Rentz's (Jr./San Diego, Calif.) 100th-place showing of 21:56. Lexa Gass (Sr./Crescent, Pa.) placed 121st with her 22:06 showing and team captain Erica Ziel (Sr./Saginaw, Mich.) rounded out the squad's scoring five with her time of 22:12 for 133rd overall.
The Midshipmen will close out the regular season on Friday, Oct. 16, when they head up to West Point to take on Army in the Star Meet at 4:45 p.m.
