The Slippery Rock University women’s cross country team competed in the Lock Haven Invitational on Saturday.
The team stepped up and placed fifth among the 18 competing teams even without the help of junior top runner Melissa Rains, who is recovering from an injury, and senior Jordyn Hackett.
Sophomore Courtney Group led The Rock with a third place finish in the 6K-race with a time of 22:33.8, less than ten seconds behind the first place runner.
About a minute behind Group was freshman Makaila Banka with a time of 23:28.2. Then came juniors Caitlyn Janeda (23:42.5) and Mattie Dunham (23:56.1) and senior Alexis Swiergol (24:06.0). Senior Kaylee Haberkam and freshman Lindsee Zimmer followed with times of 24:11.6 and 24:34.2, respectively.
Slippery Rock’s top five all came in the top 50 of the race of over 200 runners.
The winning team was Susquehanna with 78 points, with Penn State Club just behind them with 79 points. Then came Lock Haven (106 points), Cleveland State (109 points) and Slippery Rock (128 points).
The team will compete at home in two weeks at the Mack Cooper Invitational at Cooper’s Lake Campground in Slippery Rock. Then they will hit the PSAC Championships.
