John Holton
Staff Writer
The women’s cross country team struggled at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. last weekend, coming in 15th overall out of 20 teams that competed in the five kilometer (3.1 mile) race. The top finisher for the Dons was junior Elena Burkard, who just managed to crack the top 20 runners, coming in 19th overall with a time of 16:45.2.
The next athlete to get across the line for the Dons was graduate student Jana Soethout, who finished shortly after Burkard with a time of 16:59.0, earning herself a 36th place-finish. After Soethout, there was a steep drop-off before the next Dons finisher, freshman Haley Dorris, who came in 95th in the field of 165 runners.
Just behind Dorris were sophomore Ashley Moffett and senior Kate Jamboretz, who came in 99th and 100th, respectively. Towards the back of the pack, the Dons had two freshman finishers, with Catherine Clohesy coming in 129th and Kelsey Nielsen finishing 150th.
Head coach Helen Lehman-Winters felt that the team has much to improve on after their subpar performance at Notre Dame.
“We had some unfortunate mishaps with our top three [runners], and we had very little production from the rest of the squad,” Lehman-Winters told usfdons.com. “We have to get back to work and put things back together and get ready for Wisconsin.”
The Dons will have a good amount of time before the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, which takes place on Friday, Oct. 17. They will also compete at the San Francisco State Invitational, which will be held tomorrow at the Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. τ
