Navy Beats Army in Women’s Cross Country
The Navy Women’s Cross Country Team (image: NavySports.com)
The Navy women’s cross country team beat the Black Knights of Army, 24-31, on Saturday morning.
The 2018 Star Meet took place in Annapolis on the USNA Cross Country Course. Taking advantage of running on their home course, the Mids took an early lead and kept it during some critical pack-running late in the race.
Grace West (junior, Pinehurst, NC) finished first in the 6,000-meter event with a time of 21:40.18. It was the seventh fastest time in the course’s history and the fastest recorded since 2013.
Claire Ostrowski (junior, Virginia Beach, VA) took second place, finishing in 21:50.44.
Navy also took the fourth, seventh and tenth places. Respectively, Ali Valenti (senior, Lansdale, PA), Caitlin Schmitt (junior, Evergreen, CO) and team captain Erin McDonnell (senior, Traverse City, MI) claimed these crucial spots.
These five top-ten finishes gave Navy a team total of 24, beating Army’s 31.
Navy’s head coach, Karen Boyle, was exuberant after the victory. She said of her squad, “They pushed the pace and used our home course advantage to get our N-star back. Grace, Claire, Ali, and Cait ran picture-perfect races up front, while the rest of the team did a super job of packing between the middle pack Army scorers.”
Saturday’s meet was part of the year-long Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA. As of Saturday night, Army held a 4-3 lead over Navy in this year’s multi-sport Star meets.
