High Point Women’s Cross Country 13th at Panorama Farms Invitational

EARLYSVILLE, Va. — The High Point University women’s cross country team placed 13th in the Virginia Panorama Farms Invitational on Saturday in Earlysville, Va., just one point behind league foe Liberty. Freshman Cozette Collin led HPU for the fourth time in four races this season.

“We raced OK but we still need to close the gap between our No. 1 and 5 runners,” said head women’s cross country coach Jenna Wrieden. It was good to go to a high caliber meet like this and experience racing against some of the best teams in the country. Every week we’re getting a little bit better. We need to make some gains over the next month going into the conference meet. Losing to Liberty by one point today shows how close the conference meet is going to be.”

Collin led HPU with a 34th-place finish and a time of 18:09.2 for the 5K course. She improved 10 spots after passing the two-mile mark. Senior Audrey Malloy placed 76th with a time of 18:56.9 and sophomore Katie Farina took 80th with a time of 19:08.0.

Senior Kayleigh Perry was the fourth Panther to cross the finish line, taking 92nd overall with a time of 19:25.8. Junior Sarah Dorrell placed 95th, moving up six spots after the two-mile mark, coming in at 19:30.0. She was just ahead of sophomore Julia Zautcke, who placed 96th in 19:32.4.

Freshman Natalia Ocasio was HPU’s seventh finisher, 113th overall.

Virginia won the meet with a low score of 42 points followed by No. 14 William & Mary (67) and Eastern Kentucky (118). Harvard placed fourth with 142 points followed by Ole Miss (148), California (156) and UNC Greensboro (168). The eighth through 11th finishers were Auburn, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Navy. Liberty placed 12th with 346 points followed by High Point (347) and George Mason (361).

The Virginia Panorama Farms Invitational was the third race in three weeks for High Point. It’s the same course that the NCAA Southeast Regional will be held on in November. The team next races on Oct. 18 in the Blue Ridge Open in Boone, N.C.