The Kalamazoo College women's cross country team finished 21st at the Calvin Knight Invite on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Lauren Arquette finished third overall with a time of 18:04 in the 5K event.
"Every single one of our eleven women ran with tenacity, and all the miles they logged over the summer and the hard training they've done in our first two weeks together really showed on the course today," Kalamazoo Head Coach Kristopher Koster said. "When all eleven of them run faster season debuts than ever before, or at least faster than they have in several years, and four of them run faster than they ever have in their lives, you know we have a motivated and inspired group this fall.
"It was good to finish ahead of a couple of our MIAA rivals right off the bat, but if these women continue to pack it up and attack each workout and race like they have so far this year, I think we'll move our way up the results all season long."
Kalamazoo's next event is the MIAA Jamboree on Sept. 26 at West Ottawa Golf Club in Holland.
Coach's Notes
-We finished one place higher than in this meet a year ago, scoring 30 fewer points, and our top five averaged 41 seconds faster.
-A year after beating only one MIAA team once in any meet the entire season (Olivet, by four points at Regionals), we finished ahead of both Adrian and Olivet to start this season.
-Three seniors ran lifetime (including HS and college) 5K personal records: Mira Swearer (by ten seconds), Rachel Zemmol (by 13 seconds, to break 25:00 for the first time), and Margot Couraud (by 1:32, to crack both the 24:00 and 23:00 barriers for the first time).
-Julia Hulbert ran 1:53 faster than her previous fastest season debut in college. It was the second-fastest time of her college career.
-Three of our first-years--Cheyenne Allyn-White, Kathryn Thamann, and Sam Hicks--opened with faster season debuts than they had ever run in their high school careers.
-Hannah Hamilton finished strongly in her first race in nearly two years after undergoing hip surgery as a junior in high school.
-Lauren Arquette finished third overall, but second among collegiate runners, with a 41-second improvement over her high school PR. She was only eight seconds behind the winner, Calvin's top runner who placed third in the MIAA, fourth in the Great Lakes Regional, and 51st at Nationals last fall and finished 20th in the 5,000m at T&F Nationals last spring. Lauren finished 31 seconds ahead of Alma's top runner, who placed fourth in the MIAA, sixth in the Regional, and 68th at Nationals last fall.