The Waynesburg University women’s cross-country team traveled to Lock Haven Saturday to compete in the Lock Haven University Cross Country Invitational.

The Yellow Jackets finished 12th out of 37 total teams scoring 339 points. The meet included Division I,Division II and Division III squads.

West Virginia University won the meet taking the top six finishes and scoring 15 team points.

Going into this race, head coach Chris Hardie wanted the team to compete harder knowing the competition would be stronger.

“We knew it was going to be a big talented field,” Hardie said. “We urged everyone to push their opening pace through the first mile and to stick in groups.”

Assistant coach Michelle Cross wanted to make sure the runners stayed calm throughout the race. 

“In a large meet like this, the adrenaline runs high and the pace goes out fast,” Cross said. “We really just emphasized that they needed to feel strong and calm at the mile and to remain focus throughout the race.”

Sophomore Aubrey Wingeart was the Jackets top runner placing 18th with a time of 22:05.1.

Junior Becca Volz was the next Jacket to cross the line coming in 49th with a time of 23:03.6.  

Finishing off Waynesburg’s seven scorers were junior Nichole Shelton placing 62nd with a time of 23:21.5, sophomores Gloria Reed and Monica Kolencik, who placed 101st and 126th with times of 24:11.6 and 24:32.2, and junior Gianna Pugliano and freshman Madelyn Verhoff, who finished off the top seven for the Jackets with times of 24:37.6 and 25:12.9. 

Hardie was happy after the team’s performance at the high-performance meet.

“Almost coming in the top ten at this kind of meet is impressive to us,” Hardie said.

Although he was encouraged, Hardie said the team needs to improve on how their top five run together. 

“Our spread is a little too high right now and we have to get our runners working better together and to keep pushing forward,” Hardie said.

The Yellow Jackets are off this upcoming weekend, but will be back in action Saturday, Oct. 5 when they compete in the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University.