SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The Saint Mary's cross country team took 15th place at the Bethel Invitational on a wet and chilly Friday afternoon at St. Patrick's County Park.

 

NAIA No. 8 Indiana Wesleyan won the race with a score of 49 while fellow NAIA member and No. 19 ranked Huntington was second with a 68. Olivet Nazarene rounded out the top three with a 116. The lone NCAA Division III program in the field, the Belles were close to 14th place Goshen with a 393 to the 363 put up by the Maple Leafs.

 

The scoring five for Saint Mary's all finished within 1:32 of one another at the race. Riley Swope led the way for the Belles with a 20:54.4 time in the 5k race - a nearly identical 5k time for the same race a year ago for the sophomore - to place 78th overall and earn 70 points toward the team score. Alexa Zeese edged out a runner from Grace with a 20:53.2 as she improved her 5k time by 27 seconds from her National Catholic Invitational time to take 80th overall and earn 72 points.

 

Julia Bobosky pulled ahead of a runner from Cornerstone to take 90th place and earn 77 points with a 21:02.0. The time was more than a minute better than her previous 5k time for the Belles at the National Catholic Invitational. Emily Blank posted a 21:19.6 for 103rd and 86 points for a new collegiate 5k personal record time. It was an improvement of six seconds from her 5k time at the same race a season ago. Brigid Conmy wrapped up the team score after running a 21:22.4 for 107th place and 88 points. The sophomore improved upon her 5k time from earlier this season by 54 seconds.

 

Maura Honan ran a 21:53.1 to place 130th. The senior co-captain's time was 30 seconds faster than her 5k three weeks ago at Notre Dame. Claudia Stiglitz crossed the finish line in 22:39.3 for 160th place in a field of more than 210 runners. She shaved 11 seconds off of her time from the National Catholic Invitational 5k earlier this season. Julia Crowley posted a 22:57.9 for 166th while taking 1:18 off of her 5k time in September. Anna DeMars rounded out the efforts for the Belles with a 23:37.5 in her first 5k for the team to earn 180th place.

 

The team travels to Ohio next weekend for the annual Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble, which takes place on Saturday, October 19 starting at 11:00 a.m.