BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Taking on a deep and talented field at the 2018 Paul Short Run, the Navy women's cross country team turned in a host of solid results which culminated with a 15^th-place team finish. Racing as one of 41 teams from across North America at Lehigh's Goodman Campus Cross Country Course, the Mids received a pair of top-35 individual performances as Grace West (Jr., Pinecrest, N.C.) finished in 20^th ahead of Claire Ostrowski (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.), who placed 31^st overall.
 
"The course was pretty soggy today, so our times weren't great, but we did have some very strong performances," exclaimed head coach Karen Boyle. "The race had incredible talent from several regions from around the country and even Canada. Grace ran awesome finishing 20^th of 350 runners; Claire was close behind finishing 31^st. Both were really aggressive getting position through a tight start. Some of the other girls got caught up a bit behind a lot of traffic. They need to be more aggressive making moves and packing up tighter.
 
"We improved our overall team standing from 27^th last year to 15^th this year. We're progressing nicely as we close in on the championship part of our season!"
 
West and Ostrowski highlighted Navy's effort on the 6K course as the junior duo turned in times of 21:11 and 21:35, respectively. A sub-21:00 mark was only obtained by 12 runners on Saturday.
 
The Mids' third scorer, Ali Valenti (Sr., Lansdale, Pa.) placed 105^th with a time of 22:16. Erin McDonnell (Sr,. Traverse City, Mich.) spent most of the race shoulder-to-shoulder with Valenti clocked in six seconds later at 22:22. McDonnell ranked 123^rd overall in the field of 353 competitors.
 
Caitlin Schmitt (Jr., Evergreen, Colo.) completed Navy's scoring lineup as she crossed the line with a 22:56 time, good for 207^th place.
 
In the team standings, Yale won the program title with 118 points. Georgia (127), Utah State (163), Cornell (208) and Virginia Tech (256) rounded out the top-five. Amongst Patriot League entrants, Navy (469) was the top finisher in 15^th place as Lehigh (551) ranked 19^th, Army (556) 20^th and American (728) 30^th.
 
Navy will be off from action next weekend as the team will fine tune its preparation for the Army-Navy Star Meet on Saturday, Oct. 13. The Mids and Black Knights will go head-to-head on the USNA Cross Country Course beginning at 10 a.m.