Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Patriot League
Women's XC Impressive at League Championships
October 28, 2017 | Women's Cross Country
COACHES' CORNER - Head Coach Mike Smith
"Going into the meet we thought that the top four teams would be separated by 20 points or so," said head coach Mike Smith. "We thought we could fit in there somewhere. I don't know if anyone really thought we could get second here today except us. We have been getting better and better all year and our pack of women at number 4,5,6 has really made a leap forward and today that was evident. As good as our depth was we were also very patient, and that proved to be the thing that pulled us up in the standings. The pace was hard and fast early and we resisted that and stayed back a little bit. The challenge in this course comes in the hills after two miles, and we knew that there were places that we could pick up if people went too hard early.
"Our women executed the plan and we moved up quite a bit over the last mile of the race and that helped us to move up in the standings. All of those women closed really well. We train them to do that and it takes a certain maturity level to let your opponents get ahead and then go get them but these women are pretty fearless and that showed out there. Great execution and great effort.
"I was really impressed with Abby Halbrook today. She has really made herself into a strong cross country runner. She is just starting to figure out what her potential is and as she continues to experience the I think she will have a shot to be an NCAA caliber athlete sometime soon. She was in the 20's early in the race. Some would panic in that situation but she did not even flinch. She worked her way through the field and then with a kilometer to go found herself in third. When I saw her in third she was 15 seconds behind the two leading Bucknell women. She closed that gap with a furious finish to get 2nd. My only disappointment is that I never get to see her throw down that kick because I am watching our other women behind her.
"Bethany Nunnery also stepped it up. She was in the 30's early in the race and ended up 7th. She just worked patiently the whole race. I am proud of all of those women today. We had improvements from last year from all them. They have trained well all year and now they are seeing the rewards of all that hard work. We are remarkable because of our youth. We had no seniors out there today. We achieved this result on the strength of our sophomores and freshman. We will enjoy this improvement but realize that we have more work to do. All we can ask of them is that they run to their ability level and they did that today. Pretty simple really."
ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES
- The Black Knights were led by junior Abby Halbrook who took second overall with a time of 20:55.27.
- She was followed by sophomore Bethany Nunnery who clocked a time of 21:34.77 which was good for 7th place.
- Army was able to better last year's fifth place finish with a second place spot this season.
- It was the first time since 2001 that the men and women finished one and two in their respective championships meets.
- Halbrook and Nunnery earned First-Team All-Patriot League honors.
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INDIVIDUAL FINISHES
2. Abby Halbrook, Jr             20:55.27
7. Bethany Nunnery, So       21:34.77
22. Mika Andrews, Fr          22:04.35
23. Ramsey Wagner, So      22:05.15
25. Kajol Maheshawri, So   22:08.48
FINAL RESULTS
1. Bucknell            (58)
2. ARMY Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (79)
3. Navy                  (88)
4. Lehigh               (105)
5. Holy Cross         (119)
6. American          (125)
7. Boston UÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (152)
8. Loyola (MD.)Â Â Â Â Â (240)
9. Lafayette          (241)
10. Colgate           (288)
UP NEXT:
Army will travel to Buffalo, N.Y., for the Northeast Regional Championships on Nov. 10th.
For more information on Army West Point men's cross country team, visit GoArmyWestPoint.com and follow @ArmyWP_TrackXC on Twitter.
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Players Mentioned
