The University of Rhode Island women’s cross country team placed 12th out of 14 teams at the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship on Saturday.
Rhode Island traveled to Mechanicsville, Virginia, to compete at Pole Green Park against its A10 foes.
“We have a great group of women,” Rhode Island head coach Laurie Feit-Melnick said. “You do the very best you can, and I think that we definitely wanted to place a bit higher as a team, but things happen.”
Rhode Island was led by fourth-year Hailey LaRosa in the 6K race with a time of 21 minutes, 57.7 seconds, which was a new personal best for LaRosa. She finished 48th out of 133 runners.
“It’s very, very exciting,” Feit-Melnick said. “Hailey has worked very hard to increase her mileage and stay healthy, and she had a really good summer of training.”
Fifth-year runner Lily Saul was unable to finish the race for Rhode Island. Saul ran for the first 800 meters, then had a scary collapse with about 400 meters to go.
“We were all concerned when Lily went down,” Feit’Melnick said. “Sometimes runners just collapse. Her legs, I guess, felt wobbly and she just collapsed. It’s just a tough thing for her and obviously for the team.”
Second-year Jordan Hadfield was the next highest finisher for the Rams, placing 63rd overall with a time of 22:06.8. Rhode Island’s remaining finishers were second-year Keaney Bayha in 91st at 22:48.2, third-year Kelsey Wolff in 93rd at 22:50.7 and fifth-year Zoe Catrambone in 94th at 22:53.1.
Third-years Alison Pankowicz at 23:02.5 and Gwen McCloughan at 23:31.8 finished off Rhode Island’s competitors at the end of the race.
Loyola Chicago would go on to win the conference title for the fifth straight year. The Ramblers combined for four of the race’s top-20 runners and secured 69 points. Fifth-year Allison Dougherty led the way for the Ramblers with a time of 20:27.1, placing second overall.
Rounding out the top five were Saint Louis University with 88 points, George Washington University with 91 points, Saint Joseph’s University with 131 points and La Salle University with 133 points.
Fifth-year runner Oliwia Wawrzyniak of Saint Louis placed first overall in the race with a time of 19:37.6.
Rhode Island still has one race remaining in the cross country season before the Rams take their talents to the indoor track.
“We just have to make sure everyone is healthy,” Feit-Melnick said. “What we love about our sport is that if it wasn’t perfect in cross country, then we’re moving on to indoor, and we look forward to an entire year of competing.”
Rhode Island will have its final race of the season on Nov. 13 at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship in Bethpage, New York.
