Cooper Mead

Senior Writer

The women’s cross country team claimed a runner-up finish at Penn State’s Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at its first away meet of the season. The meet came after a great performance at the Bison Open. Penn State won the meet with 15 points. The Bison tallied 60 points to defeat Pittsburgh with 84 points, Mount St. Mary’s with 113 points, and West Virginia with 126 points.

The team was led by Catherine Scott ’17 and Kylie Pearse ’15, who both produced important top-10 finishes to propel the Bison to the runner-up spot. Scott placed 10th with a time of 22:05, and Pearse recorded the Bison’s best time of 22:00. In addition, Montana DiPietrantonio ’15 placed 15th with a time of 22:20, Katie Jessee ’15 placed 14th with a time of 22:20, and Sarah Chandler ’17 placed 12th with a time of 22:18 to aid the Bison effort.

“We wanted to practice pack running, which helped us with moving throughout the race,” Alison Lockwood’15 said. “I think that going in with a strategy helped us to focus during the race and achieve our goals for the meet.” 

“The meet this past weekend was our first really competitive meet of the year,” Beth Braunegg’14 said. “It was also our first 6k of the year, which can be daunting, but we made it our team goal to remain focused and vocal throughout the race. A lot of girls really stepped up to the challenge and we’re really excited to face more competition in Boston in two weeks.” 

After their encouraging performance at Penn State, the Bison are hoping to carry their momentum forward as they prepare to compete at the Boston College Coast to Coast on Sept. 27 and the Bloomsburg Invitational on Sept. 28.