BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Navy women's cross country team notched a ninth-place finish in the Women's College Gold 6K race at the Paul Short Run on Saturday at the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course on the strength of a third-place individual finish by team captain
Emily Boutin. The senior trimmed nearly 35 seconds off of her season-best 6K time to clock a 20:15.8 to come in third.
As a team, Navy finished ninth among the 44 teams competing, while finishing ahead of three Patriot League schools in the competition – Army (10th), Bucknell (23rd), and meet host Lehigh (28th). Nationally-ranked Utah Valley finished first overall with a team-low 77 points, while Wake Forest notched 129 points as a team. Boston University (176), Penn State (182), and Quinnipiac (257) rounded out the top five. Georgia Tech, Belmont, and West Virginia – who is receiving votes in the national polls – finished just head of the Midshipmen with scores of 282, 283, and 337, respectively.
"The team is really coming along," head coach
Kim Lewnes stated. "We still have a few individual adjustments to make over the next couple weeks, but I am pleased with where we were today.
"Boots continues to excel. We are grateful to have Ellie back in the mix this week. Caroline has put in 4 years of patient work and I love seeing her compete at this next level! Sophie, McKenna, Alex, Olivia and Mia-Claire will continue to tighten the scoring pack up as we head into championship season."
From start to finish, Boutin was in the top 10 throughout the race, which featured 393 individual finishers. Through the first mile, she was in seventh place. At the second checkpoint, Boutin moved up three spots into fourth place and closed out the race in third.
Ellie Abraham was second among Midshipmen with a 39th-place finish, crossing the finish line with a time of 21:15.2.
Caroline Harding continued her strong senior campaign with a time of 21:26.6 to come in third among the Navy runners.
Sophie Compton (21:56.7) and
McKenna Brophy (21:58.8) were fourth and fifth for the Midshipmen, while
Alex Wercinski (22:01.3) and
Olivia Lutkevich (22:22.7) rounded out Navy's top seven.
Mia-Claire Kezal (22:30.2),
Sarah Colebrooke (22:36.9), and
Samantha Woodworth (23:00.2) also competed in the Women's College Gold 6K.
In the Open Women's 6K, Navy had three runners finish in the top 20 with
Lillee Tang (22:32.6),
Brianna Newell (22:48.4), and
Katelyn Pepin (22:50.9) coming in ninth, 18th, and 20th, respectively, among the nearly 300 that finished the race.
Kate Leddy (22:55.7) was just outside of the top 20 with a 26th-place finish.
Shannon Clancy (23:20.0),
Natalie Jack (23:31.7),
Milana Breuninger (23:39.6),
Susannah Heinze (23:45.0),
Lexi Ensor (23:52.8),
Charlene Huang (23:55.2),
Susanna Henderson (23:59.0),
Phoebe Spackman (24:10.7),
Adorisa Kaeding (24:18.9),
Ava Ostrowski (24:28.7), and
Nadia Liesen (24:46.3) also competed in the open.
"We also had some solid performances in the open race," Lewnes added. "Lillee thrived competing from the front of that pack and I expect all of our plebes to continue to progress well into the end of their first collegiate season."
The Midshipmen will now have a week off in preparation for their next competition when the Mids head to West Point, N.Y. for the annual Army-Navy Star Meet on Saturday, Oct. 14.
