Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Paul Short Invitational
Women's Cross Country Places 17th at Paul Short Invitational
October 01, 2022 | Women's Cross Country
| MEET 3 | |
|---|---|
| PLACEMENT | 17th of 46 teams |
| DISTANCE | 6K |
| LOCATION | Goodman Campus Cross Country Course - Bethlehem, Pa. |
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Army West Point women's cross-country competed amongst 45 other programs at Goodman Campus Cross Country Course in the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University. The Black Knights came in 17th as a team, led by Georgia Jones who placed 22nd individually. The University of North Carolina claimed the top spot at the meet, with Georgetown close behind in second.
Jones time of 20:03.4 put her just 30 seconds behind the lead, as she beat out over 375 runners at the meet and placed second among Patriot League runners. Charlotte Richman had her strongest showing of the season, tabbing a 77th-place finish with a time of 20:39.9.
Joanna Halfhill and Claire Lewis continued their successful seasons with times of 20:58.5 and 21:11.6 respectively, placing 121st and 147th. Abigail McIlvain and Laurynn Sisneros rounded out the Black Knights group within the top-200, finishing within a second of each other with times of 21:26.5 and 21:27.3.
A full list of results for this meet can be found HERE.
Coach's Corner
"Today was quite possibly the most competitive field that has ever been assembled for the Paul Short meet. The women's gold race had 46 teams toe the line and quite a few of those teams will be at the NCAA meet in November. The quality of the racing was extremely high and the competitive depth was without question the best that has ever been at this meet. The temperature was ideal, and the energy of the meet drove the competition. It was a great day to run and our women competed as well as they ever have at this meet. We beat 29 teams and 16 teams beat us. Our 17th place finish on the surface might seem pretty average and of course I think we lost a few points out there but when you run down the list of teams that we beat there is a lot more perspective on just how good we were today and how loaded the field was. We beat four Ivy League schools including Yale; the third-place team in the Ivy League a year ago. We beat Rice University, a team that went to the NCAA meet last year. We beat Texas A&M, the only SEC team in the meet. We beat Rutgers and Maryland, the only Big 10 teams in the meet. Those are just a few of the 29 teams that finished behind us, and we can run much better. Our plebes were all running in the first 6k of their lives and by and large they did a nice job at handling the environment and the challenging course. They are quite possibly the most fearless group that we have had since 2014. Claire Lewis has impressed in practice and in the two collegiate races she has run, she has shown poise and a good competitive spirit and today was more of the same. Her time of 21:11 is the 2nd fastest time ever run by a plebe at the Paul short meet. It would be the fastest if not for the debut today of Charlotte Richman as our number 2. We have been bringing her along slowly and I expected her to run as our number 2 but for her to run at the level she did today against that level of competition is truly remarkable. She has never been in a race with 400 runners before and you never know how a young athlete will handle adversity, but when I saw her at two miles, any concerns that I had about how she might handle the level of competition were put aside as she started banging away at people on the hills. This was a rust buster for her, and I expect that she will only get better from here. Joanna Halfhill was our third runner today and her time of 20:58 was 2:14s faster than last year at this meet. She has put in a lot of work, and I was really impressed with how she ran today. Abigail Mcilvain and Laurynn Sisneros finished within a second of each other as our 5th and 6th today. They both have shown some nice improvements in training, and they both raced very well today. Our leader today was Georgia Jones and it was great to see her return to form. She missed all of last spring with an injury and our team felt her absence, but she is all the way back now and will continue to get better as the season progresses. Her time today (20:03) was the fastest 6k time ever run by an Army woman on any course. She is the gold standard of Army distance running and having her back on the starting line means we are going to be competitive in any race that we run. She is that good. In the end, we were good today but not good enough to win and not good enough to beat some teams that are within reach. We have more work to do and more that we can accomplish." - Mike Smith
Up Next
Army will take on the Naval Academy next on Saturday, October 15 from Annapolis, MD.
Players Mentioned
