Kennedy, Women's Cross Country take 2nd at Dallas Invitational
(Photo Coutesy of Elizabeth Herrera)
IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas women's cross country team notched a season-best 53 points to claim second place on Saturday morning in the University of Dallas Invitational. The finish for the host school ties a season-best as well, after the Lady Crusaders were placed in that slot among Division III competition at the Texas Division III Championship two weeks ago.
Continuing her success for Dallas in her rookie campaign was freshman Bridget Kennedy (San Antonio, Texas) by taking second place. She improved for the third-straight 5K competition in a row by increasing her career-best time to 19:39 minutes. It marks the first time this season a runner for the Navy and White has tallied a time below 20 minutes.
Also cracking the top 10 for the first time this season was senior Ruth Fritz (Boise, Idaho) with a season personal record (PR) of 20:34. A trio of runners for UD would round out the first 20 spots in the rankings out of 49 participants. Freshman Caroline Schemel (Greencastle, Pa.) took 12th with a 21:13 time – season PR. Senior Emma Polefko (Cypress, Texas) and junior Joey Danaher (Boulder, Col.) were tabbed in 15th and 19th place, respectively. The duo also gave respective season PR performances with scores of 21:31 and 22:02.
University of Texas at Dallas would win the team championship with a score of 46, and Southwestern Assemblies of God completed the top three finishing squads with 83 points. Destiny Garza from SAGU took the individual gold medal with an 18:20 time. Kennedy was right there with her career-best and UT-Dallas's Samantha Tschirhart rounded the first three rankings with a 20:03.
Dallas will take another two-week break before heading to Sherman, Texas, for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) on October 31.