NORTH SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Under ideal fall cross country weather conditions, and with a flat and fast course for the field of 14 teams, all six Bellevue University women's cross country runners recorded season bests at the Briar Cliff Invitational at the Adams Nature Preserve.
For the first time this season, Alisiara Hobbs led the Bruins across the finish line. She cut over 90 seconds from her personal best, running the race in 19:51.4 for an eighth place finish. Additionally, she became the first Bruin to break the 20-minute barrier.
Next across for Bellevue was Lorena Ramirez, in 11th place and also breaking the 20-minute barrier, in a time of 19:54.3. Isabelle Gonzalez and Maiwut Dar placed 62nd and 64th with personal best times of 20:50.3 and 20:53.2, respectively.
Dayana Montano-Salama and Diana Montano-Salama rounded out the Bruin lineup with personal best times of 22:51.0 and 24:26.8 to finish 109th and 121st.
During the race, the leading group of runners was directed off the course and after an impromptu coaches' meeting, it was decided that team scores would not be tabulated for the meet.
Coach Craig Christians:
"Today's performance was very good considering how hard we've been training. We knew the Briar Cliff course was a fast one but I think our expectations were greatly exceeded with the times we saw today. I thought Alisiara had a breakout race with a huge (1:35) personal best and Belle and Dayana also had great runs with 1+ minute bests. This was a great way to head into a couple weeks of training without racing as we begin our drive toward the conference meet in about a month."
Up Next:
Bellevue has the next two weekends off before returning to the course on Saturday, Oct. 26 for the Mount Marty Invitational in Yankton, S.D. Start time is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
