Women's Cross Country places 8th at Wilmington Invitational, first team finish since 2004

WILMINGTON, Del. - It was a special day for the Gallaudet University women's cross country program on Saturday as the Bison placed eighth overall as a team in the 9th Annual Wilmington University Cross Country Invitational held at Carousel Park in Wilmington, Del.

This was the first time since 2004 that Gallaudet had five runners compete in a meet and record team points. GU re-introduced the sport of cross country in 2008 after several years on hiatus.

The Bison earned 234 points and finished ahead of Cumberland County College (244 points), Caldwell College (271 points) and Capital Athletic Conference member Wesley College (284 points).

Junior Kayla Castro (Tucson, Ariz.) ran a superb race as she finished in the Top 20 with a 13th overall finish out of 74 runners. Castro crossed the finish line of the 5K race with a new personal record of 22 minutes and 10 seconds. She was 26 seconds shy of cracking the Top 10.

Freshman Amy Bachtel (Columbus, Ohio) was the second Bison to finish as she crossed the line in 47th place with a time of 27:06. The scoring was rounded out by three Bison runners, who finished close together. Freshman Olivia Malcolm was 66th overall (32:17), junior Kirsten Swanson (Grapevine, Texas) was 67th overall (32:38) and freshman Lucita Alford (Chicago, Ill.) was 68th overall (33:12). This was the first race of the year for both Alford and Malcolm.

Philadelphia University won the meet as it placed its five runners in the Top 10. PU accumulated 27 team points followed by Ocean County College (69 points) and host Wilmington University (88 points), who edged Nyack College by two points for third place.

The top runner was sophomore Sarah Simonetti from Philadelphia University who won the race with a time of 20:27.

Gallaudet will next run in the York (Pa.) College Invitational on Saturday, September 19, at 10 a.m. in York, Pa.

Also see:

• 9th Annual Wilmington University Invitational Women's Results (PDF)