Ritz finishes fourth to lead Gallaudet at York Invitational
YORK, Pa. - Junior Rose Ritz (Wauwatosa, Wis.) ran a terrific race on Saturday to lead the Gallaudet University women's cross country team at the York (Pa.) College Invitational at John Rudy Park. The Bison finished eighth overall out of 10 teams as they accumulated 181 team points.
Ritz finished fourth overall as she completed the 5,000-meter race in 21 minutes and 36 seconds. She was 22 seconds off the first-place pace set by Alvernia University's Bridget Burger who won the race.
The next Bison to cross the finish line was freshman Amy Bachtel (Columbus, Ohio) with a time of 25:44 (37th overall). She was closely followed by junior teammate Kirsten Swanson (Grapevine, Texas) with a time of 27:24 (41st overall). The final two runners to finish were freshmen Olivia Malcolm (54th overall) and Lucita Alford (Chicago, Ill.), who placed 57th overall out of 64 runners. Malcom's time was 30:19 while Alford was under 31 minutes with 30:58. GU was out the services of its top runner Kayla Castro (Tucson, Ariz.).
The meet featured five other Capital Athletic Conference teams. The host Spartans won the race with 43 team points followed by St. Mary's (Md.) College (86 points) and Hood College (89 points). Stevenson University was fifth (139 points) while Marymount (Va.) University (149 points) was sixth.
Gallaudet will next return to Salisbury, Md., and Winter Place Park to run in the Don Cathcart Invitational on Saturday, September 26, at 10 a.m. The Bison began the season at the Sea Gull Opener on September 5 in Salisbury, Md. At that meet the Bison only had three runners and did not earn team points. A deeper GU team will see a difference next week.
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