CMS Women's Cross Country Shares First at Biola Invitational

CMS Women's Cross Country Shares First at Biola Invitational

LA MIRADA, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's cross country team finished tied with Point Loma for first place at the Biola Invitational on Saturday morning, with each team finishing with 42 points.

Point Loma was officially declared the Biola Invitational champion due to the tiebreaker, but the Athenas were able to come away with a share of the point lead from its second event of the season. Host Biola came in third place with 58 points, while La Verne was fourth, Westmont fifth, and Chapman sixth. 

Senior Malea Martin was the top individual finisher for the Athenas, coming in second place overall with an 18:30.29. Fellow senior Natalie Marsh was sixth with a 18:48.40 over the 5K race, while sophomore Abigale Johnson also earned a top-10 finish, coming in ninth in 18:58.16. 

Freshman Emily Clarke scored for the Athenas by coming in just under the 19-minute mark with an 18:59.62 to end in 11th place. Sophomore Dulcie Jones was the fifth CMS runner to earn points, ending in 14th place with a time of 19:06.19.

The Athenas also displayed impressive depth with 20 runners in the top half of the 84-runner field. Just outside of the top five for CMS was Morgan Blevins in 17th place (19:20.54) and freshman Sophie Gitlin in 19th (19:23.76). Also breaking the 20-minute mark were junior Georgia Scherer (21st, 19:31.41), freshman Riley Harmon (23th, 19:36,42), senior Matilda Msall (24th, 19:38.94), and sophomore Olivia Gleason (26th, 19:43.72).  

In the top half for CMS were junior Laura Fleming (29th), sophomore Samantha Baker (32nd), freshman Brooklyn Button (35th), sophomore Jackie McVay (36th), junior Alexandra Lambros (38th), sophomore Sophie Liles (39th), freshman Angela Liu (40th), sophomore Sarah Halvorson (41st) and senior Olivia Palenscar (42nd). 

CMS will be back in action next weekend when it travels to the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday morning.