Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Coast-to-Coast Battle
Jones Paces Army At The Battle In Beantown
September 24, 2021 | Women's Cross Country
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MEET 3 |
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RESULTS |
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RACE DISTANCE |
5K |
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TEAMS |
Army, Albany, Boston College, Boston, Brown, Columbia, UConn, Delaware, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Maine, UMass, UMass Lowell, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Northeastern, Providence, Rhode Island, Santa Clara, Syracuse, Yale |
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LOCATION |
Franklin Park |
BOSTON – Georgia Jones led Army West Point in her second meet of the season at the Coast-To-Coast Battle in Beantown, one of the nation's top collegiate cross country invitationals, on Friday afternoon. This year's event featured 22 teams including No. 13 North Carolina, No. 22 UConn, and several teams receiving votes in the latest USTFCCCA national poll.
Jones finished with a time of 17:37 to lead the Black Knights and placed 22nd overall; she also finished first in the season-opening dual meet at Maine. Jones also bested her collegiate best time in the 5K which was set in the season opener (17:55.1).
Maryanna Wehrle was second on the team with a time of 18:49. She was followed by Dominique Shultz, Melissa Jachim, and Abigail McIlvain; all who finished with a time of 18:54. As a team, Army finished 15th with 420 points.
COACH'S CORNER
"Today was a good eye-opener for our team. The top 5 teams today will end up being ranked in the top 30 by the end of the weekend. I think we were physically prepared for the course and the intensity of the competition but we were a little shy on the type of aggressive racing that is required at a meet of this caliber. Our pack did a nice job of grouping up but we were a little too far back in the race to make a difference in the outcome. The race was dense the entire way and I think that although we talked about the need to be moving through the field, it was a challenge for some of our younger runners to execute. For the most part, we finished right with the people that we were with at the mile mark. Maryanna Wehrle, Abigail McIlvain, and Melissa Jachim were close to each other most of the race. This was the first big meet for all of them so it was nice to see them packed up and working together. They just need to move up higher in the field. They will figure out how to be more aggressive in races through more experience. Next week will be another high caliber meet and I would hope that we get better at our in-race execution. Georgia Jones was very aggressive and went right to the front of the race. She paid a price for that today but it will benefit her in the championship meets later in the season. Although it was a hard grinding pace early, she did a nice job of hanging in there for the majority of the race. When the big move came at the halfway point, she wasn't able to respond with the leaders. A year ago she would have struggled mightily after getting dropped but today her improved fitness paid off and she did a good job of holding onto her position in the race. 22nd place was a pretty strong outcome today given the level of competition. Our 15th place finish was close to where I thought we would be today. We knew going in that there were teams that we could beat and there were teams that were going to be tough to beat. The goal was to compete well against the teams that were similar to us in competitive ability. I think for the most part we accomplished that task." - Mike Smith
CADET'S CORNER
"I wanted to stay with the lead pack today, so when the gun went off I went to the front and stuck behind Syracuse's number 1. Then we got to the first hill and the leaders pulled away from me so I tried to hang on as best I could. I am not satisfied with my race today but feel good about my effort. I am eager to race again next week at Lehigh." - Georgia Jones
TOP FINISHERS
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(22) Georgia Jones – 17:37
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(94) Maryanna Wehrle – 18:49
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(100) Dominique Shultz – 18:54
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(101) Melissa Jachim – 18:54
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(103) Abigail McIlvain – 18:54
Up Next
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The Black Knights will compete at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh on Friday, October 1.
Follow Along
For complete coverage of Army West Point cross country and track and field, follow the Black Knights on Twitter (ArmyWP_TrackXC) and Instagram (goarmytrack) and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.
Players Mentioned
