Women's Cross Country competed in the Concordia Cross Country Classic on Friday with the event taking place in Pflugerville, Texas at the Northeast Metro Soccer Fields. 

Amongst a combination of SCAC, ASC, NAIA and Division II opponents, the Pirates finished in the top half of the field in fifth place with a total time of 2:07:01 and an average time of 25:24. The Pirates edged out McMurry by one point, finishing with 145 while McMurry finished with 146 points. 

The two frontrunners for the Pirates, Rachel Chiella and Breanna Steele, both performed very well finishing in the top 20. Chiella finished 15th while Steele finished right behind her in 16th. Chiella ran her 5.5K in 23:43.9 while averaging a 6:56.6 mile time. Steele ended her race a little over ten seconds behind Chiella at 23:54.3 and averaged a 6:59.6 mile time to secure her 16th place. 

In the top 50 runners were Casey Gilbert and Hallie Martinez, Gilbert went on to end her race in 38th place with a final time of 25:42. Hallie Martinez ended just inside the top 50 at 50th place in the field of ninety runners. Martinez recorded a final time of 27:20.8 

Two SCAC conference opponents finished just ahead of Southwestern with TLU finishing third and St. Thomas ending in fourth. The SCAC as a conference performed well in the Concordia Classic, with the three SCAC teams in the top five, beating all other ASC opponents. 

Women's Cross Country will have one more race before the SCAC Championships, heading up to Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts to compete in the Suffolk Invitational on Saturday, October 15th. 

Photo By Carlos Barron