ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The 2020 Women's Cross Country Army-Navy Star Meet on Saturday promised to be competitive from start to finish and once the starter's gun was fired it was 20-plus minutes of tight shoulder-to-shoulder action between two teams in search of the first star in the 2020-21 Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA. Racing on a 6k trail at the USNA Cross Country Course, the visiting Black Knights were able to edge the Mids by a score of 27-29 as they compiled six of the top-10 finishers. Navy's
Emily Craig (Sr., Reistertown, Md.) was stellar throughout the race as the senior cruised to a 21.02-second individual victory.
Craig, the 2019 individual champion of the Army-Navy women's cross country meet, was dominant once again as she broke out to an early lead and never looked back. At the first checkpoint she was up by 12.4 seconds over Army's Georgia Jones before adding further separation with a final time of 21:14.78 versus Jones' 21:35.80. Craig's time is the third-best by a Navy runner at the Mids' home course in program history.
After Army's Helen Shearer placed third, Navy took the next two finishing positions as
Jessica Nangle (Jr, Southampton, Pa.) and
Elizabeth Sullivan (So., Portsmouth, R.I.) went back-to-back with times of 21:48.79 and 21:53.85, respectively.
Black Knight runners finished sixth and seventh before the Mids'
Lael Flores (So., Harleysville, Pa.) posted the eighth-best time of 22:09.71.
With the team score knotted at 18-18 through eight total runners, four each for Army and Navy, the Black Knights clinched the victory as Sarah Grodin and Alexandra Gibbs placed ninth and tenth ahead of the Midshipmen duo of
Maddie Warrender (Jr., Mount Wolf, Pa.) and
Winter Boese (So., Clark, Colo.). Warrender finished 11th at 22:25.33, while Boese was 12th at 22:34.81.
"We had some individuals compete well today, but it takes a whole team to win and as a team we did not race to our potential," remarked head coach
Kim Lewnes.
All-time, Navy leads the service academy rivalry over Army, 21-14.
The Mids will conclude their 2020 fall season with a tri-meet at West Point on November 11 as they will race against the Black Knights and Air Force Falcons.
