Though they finished last in Saturday's Mountain East Conference women's cross country championship meet in Bridgeport this year's squad showed great improvement over the performance of the third year program's first two appearances in the event.
   And it came under tough conditions.
  "The course at Bridgeport is very hilly and demanding," WVSU Head Coach David Smith said. "It is defiitely the most difficult course we have run since we started the program."
   Deyahnna Styles' 37th place and Rachel Ward's 45th place finishes were both better than any Yellow Jacket runner had done previously.
   Styles' 56th place finish last year had been the benchmark.
   This year's team score of 255 is considerably better than last year's 319.
   The squad missed 10th place by just 16 points and ninth by 25. Last year those margins were 44 and 120.
   "Our program has shown improvement each year," Smith said. "We are only a couple of runners away from being able to finish in the top half of the MEC."
   Also scoring for WVSu were Laura Szorenyi, Amiea Summers, and Jillian Fletcher.