WACO, Texas - The Southwestern women's cross country team debuted their largest team in years as they put forth a balanced race at the Bear Twilight Invitational on Friday night. The Pirates came in 10th place out of 11 teams, scoring 250 points. Host institution Baylor won the meet with 22 points.

First-year Lilly Duarte came out strong in her first collegiate race. She ran aggressively despite it being her first race at this distance. She came in 41st overall and first for Southwestern at 16:06.1. Sophomore Christina Hadly (pictured) was close behind coming in 47th place at 16:22.4.

The strong young performances continued as first-years Leticia Terrazas and Kara Koinis came in at 68th and 69th respectively. Terrazas finished in a time of 17:19.8 and Koinis was at 17:30.8. Sophomore Laura Wooden led the next group for Southwestern over the finish line, coming in 75th place at 17:55. Hot on her heels were first year Amanda Sayer (17:55.4) and Emily Ammon (17:56.0).

Next came first-year Brandi Martin at 18:35.0 followed by first-year Sarah Puffer (19:52.2), first-year Allie Klein (20:00.1), senior Lili McEntire (20:03.4), first-year Meg Greenfield (20:06.6), first-year Stephanie Rodriguez (21:03.1) and junior Kelly Myers (21:34.4).

The young Pirate team will use their lessons learned in this race at their next competition, the Texas DIII Championships on September 25th in Seguin, Texas.