MIDDLETOWN, Conn. —
The U.S. Coast Guard Academy women's cross country team excelled at Wesleyan University's Cardinal Invitational on Saturday, finishing second in a field that featured three nationally ranked teams and three more in the top ten of their respective regional rankings.
The lone team ahead of the Bears at the race's end was NEWMAC rivals and defending national champions MIT, who are the current #1 team in the USTFCCCA National Coaches Poll. Team captain
Claire Semerod (Centennial, Colo.) once again led the way for the Bears, with her time of 21:22 on the 6k course being fifth in the field and just two seconds away from her personal record.
Annabel Molner (Bremen, Germany) and
Brooke Hunter (Phillipsburg, N.J.) were the next finishers for the team, finishing 17th at 22:28 and 19th at 22:31, respectively. Both times were improvements on each of their personal bests by over 30 seconds. Rounding out the top seven for the Academy were
Maddie Spaner (McLean, Va.) in 25th at 22:55;
Hannah Edwards (Highland Village, Tex.) in 27th at 22:58;
Mia Mastrogiovanni (Manahawkin, N.J.) at 23:00 in 28th; and
Mary Faltys (Schuyler, Neb.) at 23:03 in 32nd.
The program record book will be victim to a shake-up sometime soon in the 6k section, with Molner moving up to 12th, Hunter to 14th, Spaner to 19th, and Edwards to 20th.
"The team solidified their place as one of the top 3o programs in the country today," said head coach Greg Ahnrud. "Clair showed again that she's one of the top distance runners in the nation by finishing ahead of several All-Americans and running a fantastic time for this point in the year. As a team, we knew that if we wanted to contend at the national level, some people outside of our top seven last year needed to take major steps; Annabel and Brooke are both well on their way to doing just that. The rest of the quad ran exceedingly well, too. With about half a mile to go, we were probably going to finish third overall but our fourth through eighth runners were able to move up as a pack to make a handful of passes and secure an outstanding result for the team. Even outside of our top seven, almost everyone on the team had one of their best cross country performances, with a number of our freshmen breaking their high school 5k splits in today's race.
Women's cross country gets a week off before heading to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on October 3rd to compete in Lehigh University's Paul Short Run. The Paul Short is widely considered to be one of the most competitive races of the regular season, often hosting the best teams and runners in the country.
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