Women's Cross Country Brings Home Star in Win Over Navy

Saturday, October 14

10:30 AM

Army West Point

Navy

Women's Cross Country Brings Home Star in Win Over Navy

October 14, 2023 | Women's Cross Country

Full Results

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point women's cross country beat Navy for the first time since 2020.

The Black Knights placed six in the top 10 to add another point for Army in the Star Series presented by USAA.

Charlotte Richman was the Army leader coming in second place with a time of 20:39.1. Joanna Halfhill (20:49.2) and Louisa Diamond (20:58.3) finished third and fourth.

Clarie Lewis (21:03.5), Mikayla Cheney (21:17.9), Laurynn Sisneros (21:21.3) came in eighth, ninth, and tenth respectively.

Army now leads the Star Series with a record of 3-0-1. The wins came in golf, sprint football, and now women's cross country, the draw came in men's soccer.

COACHES CORNER

Head coach Mike Smith: We knew we had the talent and the depth to win the meet today but wins in the Star series are never easy and just because you are talented or prepared doesn't entitle you to a win. The opponent always has a say in the outcome. The conditions were very difficult out there today. The rain formed puddles in some areas and swamps in others. Some of the worst areas were the golf course fairways where the shortest grasses functioned like a slip and slide more so than a firm running surface. The steep downhills and the sharp turns made upright running a challenge and multiple runners slid to the ground or outright tumbled to the turf. The scoring in the meet went back and forth throughout the race as their women moved forward and our women responded. We knew that navy had the top runner in the meet so we let her go to the front and we focused on the race for 2^nd through 10^th. We were patient early in the race and that put us behind in the scoring as we chased the navy runners that were out front. We knew our strength would be our ability to push the tempo late in the race and several of our women did that very well today. Charlotte Richman led the way. She is a fearless kid with a very high motor so sometimes we have to hold her back to keep her from hammering too soon. She shadowed the navy runners up front and as soon as she sensed fatigue in their top pack she attacked them. Initially they responded to her move but when Charlotte pushed again, they could not match the move and she ran away from them. Behind Charlotte, the real back and forth began. With a mile to go Joanna was embedded in a pack of navy runners and when that group showed some weakness in the swampy area of the course, she pounced on them and started driving toward the finish. Joanna has a wrecking ball mentality when it comes to her opponents and as the race developed I could sense that she was waiting to do some damage. When she sensed their hesitancy, she hit them hard. It was a decisive move and she was fully committed. She had run that last mile many times in practice and knew exactly what she was doing. The navy runners could not respond. With a mile to go navy held the 1 and 4 spots and we held the 2 and 3 spots. The top 3 spots would not change for the remainder of the race. The race for the 4^th-10^th spots was constantly changing. Claire Lewis had been a little too far back in the race early but had recovered by the halfway point and with a half mile to go she had moved herself all the way up to 8^th and was our solid number 4. She held onto that spot all the way to the line. She ran the fastest last half mile of anyone in the race and her long and hard charge had moved us to the lead as she came into the final 200 meter finish straight. Our 5^th for the majority of the race and at the finish was a plebe, Mikalya Cheney. She didn't run much cross country in high school preferring to play volleyball, soccer and basketball. That athleticism was not lost on us in the recruiting process and her track times belied a level of ability that we knew could translate to success on our roster. Success on the track does not always translate to success on the grass. You have to have a certain level of grit in order to run cross country and you have to be willing to go to a very deep level of pain in order to do it well. Mikayla does it well and today she did it very well. She got out into the race with her teammates and hung on to our pack as long as she could. We had 6 women in the top 10 with 200 meters to go. Our women are the most talented team and the deepest team that we have ever had at the Academy but more than that they are the most confident team that I have had in my time here. They don't overthink things and when given instruction they respond. We told them to be patient early and attack at the end of the race. They had done that today and yet the outcome of the meet was in doubt with 200 meters to go. Coming off the bridge Louisa Diamond was our number 3 and she was in 4^th place with two navy runners in hot pursuit. The final score would be decided by how those three women finished at the line. Louisa is a plebe and the two navy runners are experienced and proven performers. Louisa was a good high school runner having finished 22^nd at the Illinois state meet as a senior but what we have discovered since she joined our team, is that she is much better than her high school results. She certainly has the physical ability to be very good at this level but it is her mental toughness that sets her apart. She has an elite level of "want to". So when she came off the bridge with those two navy women chasing her, I thought we were in trouble. I didn't doubt her ability but in a straight sprint for 200 meters, there was no way that Louisa should come out on top. She doesn't have the top end speed of those two women. Both of those women have better personal records and better performances in both cross country and on the track. But this was not a sprint. It was the end of a grueling race and the runners going to the line were running on fumes. If both the navy women got Louisa, we would lose the meet. All of that information was going through my head as I watched the final sprint unfold. And then I saw the two navy runners move by Louisa. With 100 meters to go, we had lost the meet. But the move they made to catch and pass Louisa had cost them too much and they did not put her away when they passed her. She refused to give up and the three of them were hammering toward the line stride for stride with Louisa trailing slightly behind. And then, in the last 50 meters, Louisa found another gear and surged passed the two struggling navy runners. That one move gave us the win today and it came from a quiet unassuming kid with a never quit mindset. When I asked her about her finish she told me this, " I knew that they were behind me and then when they passed me I had nothing left in me but the screaming fans helped me realize that it wasn't about me. It was about the team and I found a little spark left in me and I finished with everything I had."