CHARLESTON, Ill. – Kaitlyn Walker's 18th-place finish on Friday at the EIU Walt Crawford Open highlighted the season-opening women's cross country meet for SIUE.
Walker was the Cougars' top runner in the 5K race in 19 minutes and 30 seconds.
SIUE placed fourth as a team out of six. Marquette won the meet with 27 points, followed by Illinois-Chicago (41), Eastern Illinois (54), SIUE (106), Vincennes (154) and Kaskaskia College (175).
"Our team did great at EIU today," said Assistant Coach Josh Wolfe. "For the first competition of the year, we just wanted to be competitive and see where we are after a long summer of base training".
Multiple women finished the race for SIUE with career-best times in the 5K race. Alexis Fischer (18th/19:43), Caroline Gwaltney (25th/20:08) and Chessy Nikonowicz (26th/20:09) all recorded career-best times.
Other SIUE finishers were Olivia Wolf (20:50), Courtney Anthonies (21:12), Kylie Eversgerd (21:25), Ana Keller (21:30), Natalia Rodriguez (22:12), Gabby Wood (22:12), Alexis Edgar (22:24), and Payton Tieffel (22:30).
"We had a number of career bests, which isn't common for the first meet of the year, and shows how hard our group has been working," added Wolfe. "We'll have a strong training segment and be ready for our next meet at Illinois State".
Next up for SIUE is the Redbird Invite on September 16th.
