The University of Rhode Island women’s cross country team traveled to Farmingdale, New York, to compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship, placing 18th of 26 teams.
It was a much more favorable day for racing than the Paul Short Run on Oct. 2, with temperatures in the mid-50s. The Rams finished with three career-best 6K times, four season-best times and dropped their team average time to 22 minutes, 18 seconds from 22:50.
“It was a great experience to be able to get to that course,” Rhode Island head coach Laurie Feit-Melnick said. “In about a month, we’ll head back there for the NCAA Northeast Regional, and we’ve never been there before. That was valuable.”
Fifth-year Lily Saul shared the sentiment about the course.
“We have conference in two weeks,” Saul said. “I think it was a good race because it’s also a flat course, so we can see how it’ll be for conferences. It’s the same kind of course.”
Saul led the team on the day, placing 83rd with a time of 21:49.6. Following up was fourth-year Hailey LaRosa, who placed 117th with a career-best time of 22:11.1.
Three Rams finished within 10 seconds of each other. Second-year Keaney Bayha finished 141st with a season-best time of 22:26.8. Fifth-year Zoe Catrambone finished 148th with a career-best time of 22:30.3. Third-year Alison Pankowicz placed 159th with a season-best time of 22:35.9.
Not too far behind Pankowicz was third-year Kelsey Wolff, who placed 166th with a career-best time of 22:38.6 and second-year Jordan Hadfield, who placed 182nd in a season-best time of 22:49.4.
Rounding out the finishers, third-year Gwen McCloughan ran a season-best time of 23:21.0, placing 216th.
For Saul, watching her teammates succeed shows their dedication.
“It feels good to see,” Saul said. “You can see that everybody works hard in practice, so it feels good to see their hard work come into play.”
With times improving, the team is focused on continuing that mutual growth moving toward the Atlantic 10 Championship on Oct. 31, according to Feit-Melnick.
“We’re trying to keep our pack as tight as possible,” Feit-Melnick said. “We’re trying to get everyone to break 22 minutes.”
