William Penn Places Sixth at Grand View Invite

Des Moines--The Statesmen women's cross country team finished off its 5K portion of the season Saturday as it competed at the Grand View Invitational.

WPU finished sixth out of eight teams with 138 points, while Mount Mercy won the team title with 50 points.

Aisha Ramone of Southeastern CC guided the 59-runner field with a time of 19:52.7.

Saturday marked the last 5K race of the campaign.  Beginning this year, women now run 6K competitions at NAIA Nationals, so the final two meets of the regular season as well as the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship will all be on 6K courses.

Briana Admire (Galesburg, Ill., Biology) headed the navy and gold by placing 10th in a time of 21:03.3.

Charlotte Hele (Apple Valley, Calif., Undecided) was second for the squad in a time of 22:19.0 to take 23rd overall.

Michaela Kmiec (Sr., Centerville, Texas., Exercise Science) crossed the line in 25th place at 22:23.4, while Roselaure Fuller (Jr., Pella, Iowa, Nursing) (43rd, 23:59.6) and Morgan Taylor (So., Galesburg, Ill., Nursing) (54th, 27:53.0) also scored for William Penn.

"Our ladies put in a good effort and competed hard," Head Coach Caleb Drake said.  "I was proud of how hard they pushed through some fatigue.  Briana had a great race up front and is continuing a great season individually.  We will get back to work and are excited to run our first 6K of the season in two weeks."

Next Up: William Penn will take a week off before traveling to North Sioux City on Saturday, October 7 to compete in the Briar Cliff Invitational at 10:30 a.m.