Trojans Race to Program-Best Fifth-Place Showing at Nationals
2017 NAIA National Championships Results
VANCOUVER, Wash. – The Taylor University women's cross country team ran its fastest time in program history on Saturday and finished fifth-of-36 teams at the 38th-Annual NAIA National Championships for its best-ever finish.
The Trojans ran a team time of 92:31 to shatter their previous record mark by 18 seconds and finished inside the top-10 for the third time in five years, while logging a fifth-straight, top-20 performance. TU posted another program first by placing a trio of individuals inside the top-50.
"We were very thankful for the opportunity to compete today," said head coach Quinn White. "I feel this team ran with courage and conviction. To finish fifth in the nation is quite an accomplishment and I am happy for these young ladies. It is also quite special to end with the school record time."
Sarah Harden turned in the team's best time for the fifth race this season with a personal-best time of 18:00 and finished 23rd overall to join Lolly York (2005, 2006) and Alex Berends (2014) as the only NAIA All-Americans in TU's program history. The time was a personal-best mark for Harden in her first season with the Trojans and trailed only York and Berends for the fastest all-time individual mark at Taylor.
"We were very pleased for Sarah, as she earned All-American honors," added White. "She ran a very strong race and ended the season with a big personal-best time."
Mae Elizabeth Gimre finished at 18:12 to end in 34th for her third-straight, top-60 showing at the National Championships. Gimre's time was just two seconds off a personal-best and marked the junior's best showing at Nationals, while also marking a fifth-straight time improvement for Gimre to close the season with her best showing of the year.
Taylor Bluemel crossed at 18:29 to finish 48th for a 26-second and 69-spot improvement over her showing at Nationals one year ago. Bluemel also narrowly missed a personal-best performance, finishing one second off pace and finishing inside TU's top-three individuals for the seventh time during her sophomore season.
Alex Berends also completed the course at Nationals for a third time and posted a third top-65 finish with a time of 18:42 to end in 64th. The time was the junior's second-best of the season and marked the second time in program history that TU has placed four individuals inside the top-100 at Nationals.
Livy Schroder closed Taylor's scoring and capped her freshman season by finishing 110th with a time of 19:08. Schroder scored in all seven meets for TU during her first collegiate campaign.
Rachel Blagg finished right behind Schroder in 112th with a time of 19:09 in her third showing at Nationals, while Naomi Noyes crossed in 20:59 to take 297th in her second-straight appearance at Nationals.
Taylor closed its 11th team showing at the NAIA National Championships with 232 points at the Fort Vancouver Historic Site, trailing only Aquinas (181), Oklahoma City (137), Wayland Baptist (125) and British Columbia (109) in the team standings.
The team title was British Columbia's fifth in the past six years, while Oklahoma City's Aminat Olowora repeated as the individual champion with a time of 16:50.
Taylor's fifth-place finish highlights the best five-year stretch in program history for the Trojans, who have also claimed five Crossroads League Championships, notched their 10-best team times, won 15-of-28 regular season races and posted a head-to-head mark of 461-20 during that time.
The 2017 squad will go down as the best in program history with the record-setting fifth-place finish at the National Championships. In addition, TU set a program best by climbing as high as No. 3 in the NAIA Top-25 Poll, won four-of-six regular season races, posted the first, third, fifth and ninth-best team times in program history and posted a head-to-head mark of 76-2.
"We were very mindful throughout the whole season and we brought that into this meet as well," continued White. "I feel these young ladies grew tremendously over the year and I feel like this program is at a new level. We are thankful for what we did this year but we are also excited about the future."
Taylor will graduate Ellie Coggin, Andi Foster and Lauren Melchers but is set to return 20-of-23 letterwinners for 2018, including all seven competitors from Nationals.