By:
James Garcia, Sports Information Director
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – The West Virginia State University women's cross country team took first place in the Battle of the Bluefields meet on Friday morning. The 5K race was contended by Bluefield State, Bluefield College, and WVSU. This was the best finish by the Yellow Jackets since they started running in this meet four years ago.
"I'm extremely proud of how all of the girls performed in this meet," stated Head Coach Tom Guetzloff. "They train hard week in and week out. All of them set personal records today and deserved to finish first as a team."
Senior
Sydney Ricket (Bates) finished first overall in the meet and set a personal record in the process with a time of 21:25.2. She broke the seven-minute mark on her mile average for the first time this season by pacing at 6:53.6 per mile. Ricket passed the second place finisher from Bluefield College with 50-yards to go.
Sophomore
Sierra Womack was not far behind with an average mile pace of 7:18.2 and total time of 22:41.7 that was good enough for a third-place finish. Freshman
Emer Carrington rounded out the sub-eight minute milers for the Yellow Jackets by averaging 7:36.4 per mile.
Senior
Ky'Achia Atkins ran at approximately an eight-and-a-half minute pace, while senior
Colleen Miller nearly broke the nine-minute mark and senior
Leslie Garcia almost broke the 10-minute mark on their mile averages.
WVSU collectively posted a total time of 2:02:53, which was over three-minutes faster than both Bluefields.
West Virginia State will conclude the regular season with a meet hosted by Concord University on Friday, Oct. 18.
