North Newton, Kansas- The Rangers Women's Cross Country team traveled to Kansas this week to compete at Bethel College's meet the school hosted Saturday morning. Northwestern Oklahoma State would finish the race in first place this weekend, finishing with a score of 15 behind Mallory Boden, finishing the race in 1st place. With the first place finish this is the first time and highest finish for Women's Cross Country since moving to Division II era.
"Overall, the women handled the weather conditions very well and put in a great amount of effort to win the women's title." Coach Sterlin Broomfield stated.
The Rangers finished the morning winning the race in first place over Butler CC and Oklahoma Panhandle State. The race was a 5 kilometer meet for 3.11 miles.
The Red-and-Black's freshman Boden was the first Rangers to finish for the third consecutive meet. She also placed first in the meet overall for the first time in her collegiate career. Boden finished the race with a time of 20:26.15 for an average mile time of 6.34.3.
Northwestern had seven runners qualify in the race, finishing first, second, third, fourth, fifth, ninth, and tenth.
"The teams have performed well in the past, but today we saw the team showed signs of a great team coming together. They performed well as a unit. Not everyone is going to have the best day at the same time they pulled together and were able to still get the job done. That shows promise for our future ahead," stated head coach Jill Lancaster.
The Rangers had the first five finishers who qualified with the second Northwestern runner to cross the finish line was Emily Smith, with a time of 22:01. 98 for an average mile time of 7:05.1. After Smith was Ladasheray Bell in third place for the scored runners (5th overall) with a time of 22:13.06 for a 7:08.6 mile time. In fourth in the Bethel race was Josie Gibson (seventh overall) with a 22.21.93. The fifth Ranger in the top five was Kyra Bentley with a 22:49.00 time to help the Rangers have five top-five finishers out of the scored finishers.
Jaeden Coon would run the meet in 24:48.01 for the Rangers placing her 12th overall, but ninth out of the scored runners in the meet. Jerika Coon would score 10th for the Rangers after running the 5K in 25:14.33 for a mile time of 8:06.9. Following her was Brianna Berryman finishing in 15th for Northwestern after a 25:14.63.
Northwestern had three more runners to finish the meet in Melissa Perez with a 26:49.68 time for an 8.37.6 run, followed by Katelyn Dahn, Jean Dodds, and Mariah Thompson. They would run a 28:.01.63 followed by 28:58.46 and a 30:07.30, respectively.
The Women's Cross Country team will be back in action Friday, September 24th, a part of the EMPORIA STATE XC INVITATIONAL hosted by Emporia State.
The final team standings were as followed below. The individual standings can be found at http://results.tfmeetpro.com/Goddard_Schools/MuthamaRogers_Bethel_College_XC_Meet_2021/#event2
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