RESULTS
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Brianna Malone placed second to lead the High Point University's women's cross country team to a fourth-place finish in the gold heat at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational Friday afternoon.
"I think today was a step in the right direction, however that is going to be counter to the results," HPU Women's Cross Country Head Coach
Remy Tamer said. "As a team, we didn't do what we came here to do for sure. I would say most women on the team, including myself, would give this a C-plus, maybe B-minus, but probably a C-plus, result. However, the reason I think it is a step in the right direction is because we learned some things today, some valuable things about ourselves and what will be required of us in the future to be successful when it matters. This of course matters, but this is not a championship and that is ultimately what we are training to do, to be a championship level team. So these ladies that were in the fight today and were able to learn some hard lessons the hard way, I think that they will put them to good use in four to six weeks time."
Malone's second place finish marks her third consecutive top-10 finish, and second consecutive top-three finish this season. The freshman ran a time of 17:06.0 at Notre Dame with a mile split of 5:18.2, and finished only three seconds behind the first-place finisher from Akron, who ran a time of 17:02.9.
"Although the team result wasn't exactly what we wished for, we did have some great individual success out there and I can't go without saying that our freshman Brianna Malone ran like a champion," Coach Tamer added. "She ran like a woman possessed, but more importantly, with competitive excellence. You could see it in her eyes that she was locked in on just one thing, which was competing against those other women not wearing her jersey. She was there to represent her program in the best way possible, but I think more importantly she was showing how deep in the well she can go as an individual and through that, I think represented us very well and I'm very excited to see how she does in the future."
Elizabeth Ritter, Katie Taylor, and Paris Stankewich finished within a second of each other in 25th, 26th, and 27th, respectively. Ritter clocked a time of 18:00.7, Taylor finished at 18:01.2, and Stankewich ran a time of 18:01.4. Thirty seconds later, Charli Montalvo finished, rounding out the top-five for High Point. The sophomore clocked a time of 18:31.4, good for 52nd. Shauna Skow finished not long after Montalvo, finishing in 66th place with a time of 18:45.5. Joanna Poland rounded out the lineup for the Panthers, finishing with a time of 19:08.1, placing her 93rd of the 161 individuals competing in the gold heat.
Up Next: The Panthers travel to Charlottesville, Va., to compete in a third Power Five meet on Saturday, Oct. 14, hosted by the University of Virginia.
#GoHPU
