Army West Point Athletics
Saturday, November 2
Hamilton, NY
TBA
Army West Point
at
Patriot League Championships
Cadets Place Third At Women's XC League Championship
November 02, 2019 | Women's Cross Country
HAMILTON, N.Y. - The Army West Point women's cross country team followed up its Star Meet victory with a third place finish at the Patriot League Championships on Saturday.Â
The Black Knights placed four in the top-20 of the race, led by junior Mika Andrews who placed 12th. The finish earned Andrews Second Team All-Patriot League honors.Â
Freshman Alexandra Gibbs continued her strong rookie campaign with a 16th place finish. Senior captain Sam Coletti placed right behind her in 17th.Â
COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike Smith
"We had hoped to challenge for a trophy today, but Bucknell and Boston were both strong and we couldn't match them. We knew that Boston would control the race from the front and hope to hang on and that Bucknell would be a threat to come on with a strong pack and both things happened. We actually had the best spread of all the teams in the meet with only 21 seconds separating our first through our fifth, but were just a little too far back for that spread to have an impact on the trophies. We executed and were disciplined out there, we just didn't have the same firepower as the top two teams. Every one of our top five women had an all time best finish at the Patriot League meet. I don't think that we could have run much better than we did. Â
Individually, Mika Andrews really cemented herself as a front runner on our team. She was part of our pack of four that was together for most of the race until she made a push for the top 10 late in the race. Allie Gibbs had another strong performance. Â She has done a remarkable job for a plebe and has been a consistent performer for us all year. Dominique Shultz had a nice breakthrough today. She was tentative early, but then closed with a ferocity that will pay off in the future when she figures out how to time it up better. We were fifth in the team scoring early in the race and the women knew that they needed to come home strong so there was no panic in them. They just chipped away from two miles to the finish and had a strong close to bring us up to third.
Sam and Ramsey are the two seniors in our top group that have led us all year with both their consistent approach to training and racing and they gave us more of the same today. Those two have made tremendous improvements since they got here and I was happy to see them have career performances out there today in their last Patriot League Championship. On the whole, I know the women leave here a little empty because they had hoped to contend, but as I told them after the race, other people are good too and we ran to our potential today."
TOP FINISHERS:Â
12. Mika Andrews - 22:31.9
16. Alexandra Gibbs - 22:45.9
17. Sam Coletti - 22:46.4
20. Dominique Shultz - 22:50.7
22. Ramsey Wagner - 22:53.1
FULL RESULTS:Â https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=1870
Â
The Black Knights placed four in the top-20 of the race, led by junior Mika Andrews who placed 12th. The finish earned Andrews Second Team All-Patriot League honors.Â
Freshman Alexandra Gibbs continued her strong rookie campaign with a 16th place finish. Senior captain Sam Coletti placed right behind her in 17th.Â
COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike Smith
"We had hoped to challenge for a trophy today, but Bucknell and Boston were both strong and we couldn't match them. We knew that Boston would control the race from the front and hope to hang on and that Bucknell would be a threat to come on with a strong pack and both things happened. We actually had the best spread of all the teams in the meet with only 21 seconds separating our first through our fifth, but were just a little too far back for that spread to have an impact on the trophies. We executed and were disciplined out there, we just didn't have the same firepower as the top two teams. Every one of our top five women had an all time best finish at the Patriot League meet. I don't think that we could have run much better than we did. Â
Individually, Mika Andrews really cemented herself as a front runner on our team. She was part of our pack of four that was together for most of the race until she made a push for the top 10 late in the race. Allie Gibbs had another strong performance. Â She has done a remarkable job for a plebe and has been a consistent performer for us all year. Dominique Shultz had a nice breakthrough today. She was tentative early, but then closed with a ferocity that will pay off in the future when she figures out how to time it up better. We were fifth in the team scoring early in the race and the women knew that they needed to come home strong so there was no panic in them. They just chipped away from two miles to the finish and had a strong close to bring us up to third.
Sam and Ramsey are the two seniors in our top group that have led us all year with both their consistent approach to training and racing and they gave us more of the same today. Those two have made tremendous improvements since they got here and I was happy to see them have career performances out there today in their last Patriot League Championship. On the whole, I know the women leave here a little empty because they had hoped to contend, but as I told them after the race, other people are good too and we ran to our potential today."
TOP FINISHERS:Â
12. Mika Andrews - 22:31.9
16. Alexandra Gibbs - 22:45.9
17. Sam Coletti - 22:46.4
20. Dominique Shultz - 22:50.7
22. Ramsey Wagner - 22:53.1
FULL RESULTS:Â https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=1870
Â
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
Wednesday, May 27
Saturday, May 23
Monday, May 11
Thursday, April 30