TERRE HAUTE, In. --- Asbury women's cross country rose to the occasion on Friday night in Terre Haute, In., with a team time of 2:13.59 that qualified them for NCCAA Nationals. AU also marked multiple personal records from men and women in the Nike XC Town Twilight Meet hosted by Rose-Hulman.
"We competed on one of the best courses in the country that has hosted National Championship competitions many times," said Asbury Cross Country Head Coach
Randy Crist. "This was totally a unique experience to run at night under the lights!"
Although the Asbury women's team was competing without a couple of key team members, their clutch performance of an NCCAA qualifying time (2:13:59) was just below the qualifying cutoff of 2:14:02.
Asbury sophomore
Ava Miller led the way with a time of 25:24.2 for the 6K (3.7 miles) distance, less than a second short of her personal best set last year. She was backed up by a slew of AU personal records powered byÂ
Lucy Kate Gibson,
Ella Morton,
Brooke O'Carroll,
Sophie Nordyke, and
Sarah Grimes all running the best 6K time of their life.
Wes Preston paced the Asbury men's team in an excellent time of 27:19.6 for 8K (5 miles), followed by
Cameron Tapp who recorded a personal best of 28:18.2. Freshmen
Josh Rittgers and
Jojo Ernst also set new personal records for the distance.
"This meet was an amazing experience for our team. We were in a bit over our heads with the level of competition, but ran some very good times. They got to compete on a great course on an absolutely perfect night to run. I think this will gives us a good deal of confidence as we look towards our home meet next weekend." - Crist
"This meet was an amazing experience for our team. We were in a bit over our heads with the level of competition, but ran some very good times. They got to compete on a great course on an absolutely perfect night to run. I think this will gives us a good deal of confidence as we look towards our home meet next weekend."
Head Coach | Randy Crist
AU will compete on their home course for the first time this season next Saturday, October 7th in the Spoon's Fiercely Faithful XC Meet. The race will begin at 10:30 am.
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