CEDARVILLE, Ohio – Freshman Katie Hughes paced the Wilmington College women's cross country team with a 59th place individual finish at the Cedarville Friendship Invitational hosted by Cedarville University on Saturday morning.
Wilmington, the only NCAA Division III institution at the invitational, finished 12th out of 16 teams with 327 points. Morehead State University won the meet with 32 points.
Hughes finished the five-kilometer race in 21:20.4 as the Fightin' Quakers' top finisher at the meet. Alison Helmke and Savannah Rhodes were the next Wilmington runners to cross the finish line, doing so in 22:21.7 and 22:33.5 respectively.
The Quakers' fourth and fifth-place finishers were Kendra Stahl and Jenna Kostecki with times of 23:21.9 and 25:38.7 respectively.
"Our No. 1 Katie [Hughes] ran really well and we had a solid pack behind in the 2-4 spots," Head Coach Ron Combs said. "We need to be better in the fifth spot that we were today. Nevertheless, I'm encouraged with our improvement from last season."
Sierra Poppell of Morehead State University won the event individually with a time of 18:13.1.
Wilmington has a week off before heading to Akron for the All-Ohio Intercollegiate Championships on Sept. 29.
