EARLYSVILLE, Va. — The High Point University women’s cross country team finished fifth at the Virginia/Panorama Farms Invitational Saturday (Sept. 23) at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Va.
The Panthers placed fifth in a strong 11-team field with 139 points, behind host UVA (41), Yale (67), SMU (97) and William & Mary (117), but ahead of Bucknell (156), Charlotte (174), Hampton (184), Clemson (201), Northeastern (250) and Loyola (312).
“These women came here today to prove a point,” HPU head coach Remy Tamer said. “We are here to earn our spot at the table with the power teams in the region. We are not prepared to win a race of this caliber yet. We faced tremendous competition, but our goal was to make them remember us because we will meet again.
“This team graduates no one this year and these ladies will continue to chip away at the barriers in front of them. We still need to minimize the gap between our No. 1 and No. 5 runners, but that will be the by-product of our mental toughness leading into the championship phase of the season. Win the process and the outcome falls into place.”
Freshman Famke Heinst led the Purple & White across the line for the third-consecutive meet, placing sixth overall in 6:51.3. Fellow freshmen Julia Hellman (18:29.4) and Franzi Jakobs (18:34.5) finished in 28th and 29th, respectively. Sophomore Zoe Geis placed 36th in 18:43.6, while freshman Caroline Baudinet was 40th in 18:47.4 to close out the scoring five.
The Panthers are off for a pair of weekends before hosting the VertCross Invitational in Kernersville on Oct. 13 at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex.