KUTZTOWN, PA (October 23, 2010) – When the pain pounded, the Kutztown University women's cross-country team responded by kicking it into a higher gear to earn second place of the inaugural Division II Challenge Saturday morning. (COMPLETE RESULTS)
Cristina Reimer and Becca Brandt finished in the top 10 for the Golden Bears, who scored 72 points. Shippensburg won the race with 20 points behind its tandem of Neely Spence and Mary Dell, who were first and second, respectively. KU finished ahead of Millersville (86 points), Stonehill (101), Massachusetts-Lowell (141), West Chester (168), Southern Connecticut State (181) and California (226).
In starting strong and finishing fast, Reimer was sixth overall for KU in a time of 22 minutes, 52 seconds. Brandt crossed the finish line in 10th place in 23:09. Keri Brown and Kristin Cupido also finished in the top 20 for Kutztown. Brown was 13th (23:18) and Cupido was 20th (23:59). Jenn Cleary ended the race in 23rd place (24:08).
“Overall, the race was hard, “Reimer said. “I think everybody ran well and everybody stepped it up today. The beginning of the race didn't go out as fast as I thought it would, so when I was in first I was kind of shocked. Keri Brown (Southampton, NJ/Seneca) pushed me in the beginning and she was right up there with me, which I've never seen her do before. I was really happy about that. I was kind of scared at first competing against some of these teams, but once the race started, all that went away and we just focused on what we wanted to do as a team.
In a strong field featuring four nationally-ranked teams, the Golden Bears proved why they were one of the nation's elite. Kutztown entered the meet ranked 19th in the United States Track and Field Cross-Country Coaches' Association Top 25 poll. Shippensburg entered the meet ranked third, Millersville was 15th and Stonehill was 20th. The Golden Bears should leap ahead of Millersville when the new rankings are released this week.
“I am really happy with their performance,” Kutztown University women's cross-country coach Ray Hoffman said. “They actually had me a little worried after the mile. Our girls started going backwards a little bit. It was a scary time for a coach because you're wondering if it's going to keep happening. The main thing I saw is they're really gutsy and they got really gritty once they started hurting. They dug in and they responded in the second half of the race and started coming back on some of the girls that got them early in the race.”
Kutztown returns to action on Saturday, November 6 when it competes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championships at California University of Pennsylvania.
NOTES: A Kutztown Alumni team comprised of Hailey Dell, Joanna Hortsmann, Kristin Green, Jolene Collins, Desiree Bower, Holly Pinkerton and Michelle Celenza competed as part of the Division II Challenge. They finished ninth overall with 234 points.
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