Miller Finishes Third; Mustangs Top Two Ranked Opponents In Runner-Up Finish At Virginia

Friday, September 23

Earlysville, Virginia

9:00 a.m.

SMU

Virginia/Panorama Farms Invitational

Miller Finishes Third; Mustangs Top Two Ranked Opponents In Runner-Up Finish At Virginia

Sep 23 | Cross Country

SMU Finishes Second Ahead of No. 14 Virginia and No. 16 Syracuse

Results
Results (PDF)

EARLYSVILLE, Va. (SMU) – Freshman Hannah Miller was third overall to lead the SMU women's cross country team to a runner-up finish at the Virginia/Panorama Invitational Friday morning at Panorama Farms. No. 19 BYU finished with 47 points to win the event followed by SMU with 89, while No. 16 Syracuse placed third with 98 and No. 14 Virginia came in fourth with 129.

"Today was a great day for the SMU cross country program. We knew coming in that this course was going to be tough with challenging hills, but we came out here to see what we could do against some really great programs," head coach Cathy Casey said.

Miller led a trio of Mustangs, who finished in the top-10 at the 5-kilometer race with a third-place finish in 17 minutes, 10.3 seconds. Charlotte-Tara Murphy continued her stellar freshman campaign with a ninth-place finish (17:25.7), while senior Holly Archer finished 10th in a time of 17:27.3.

SMU also got contribution from senior Agnes Sjostrom, graduate student Marlene Gomez-Islinger and sophomore Rakel Barrientos. The trio ran in a pack a majority of the race with Sjostrom finishing 33rd (18:06.5), Gomez-Islinger placing 34th (18:06.7) and Barrientos finishing 35th (18:07.4).

"All the girls really elevated their performances and didn't shy away from the competition. I was really happy with how we worked together and ran as a pack," Casey said.

Sophomore Anneke Grogan, senior Justine Anthony and freshman Alison Esparza also competed for the Mustangs. Grogan placed 37th (18:13.0), Anthony finished 41st (18:23.8) and Esparza placed 74th (19:09.8).

The Mustangs will get three weeks to train before heading to Wisconsin to compete at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational Oct. 14.

Here were the standings in the women's race...

No. 19 @BYUTFXC - 47
UR @SMUTrackFieldXC - 89
No. 16 @CuseXCTF - 98
No. 14 @UVA_Track - 129
— USTFCCCA (@USTFCCCA) September 23, 2016