Bethany, W. Va. - On a sunny Saturday morning, the Wheeling University Women's Cross Country team made the short drive up Route 88 for the Bethany Invitational. The Cardinals attacked the same course they ran a week ago in a longer form and, despite not posting a team score, the Cardinals had strong individual performances throughout the lineup. The Cardinals would place one in the top 10 of the event while each of the team's young runners continued their growth on the course. 

Leading Wheeling for the second race in a row was junior Madison Conrad, who would finish 8th overall and 2nd among MEC runners at the event. She would finish with a time of 24:40.9, and put together a 6:37 mile pace for the event. She finished just 27 seconds shy of West Liberty's Lacey Dimit Jr. For the top spot in the conference as she continued to be a leader for the team. Last week, Conrad was able to crack the top 10 of an event for the first time in a Cardinal uniform, after earning a top 20 finish a week ago. The rest of the Cardinal field was taking on their first collegiate 8K's at the event, and had some strong performances of their own. 

Finishing behind Conrad was freshman Lucinda Banks, who was the only other Cardinal runner to crack the top 50 of the event. She would finish 48th overall with a time of 27:52.1, and put together a mile pace of 7:28 in the race. She dropped 10 seconds off her mile pace in the race from a week ago as he continues her improvement. Up next was freshman Jade Trowell, who finished 67th with a time of 30:15.7. Her mile pace sat at 8:07 for the event and battled through the hilly course. The final runner of the day for the Cardinals was Jezabella Cohen, who finished 81st in the field. She ran a time of 36:33.1 (9:48 mile pace) as she rounded out her first 8K of her collegiate career. 

The Wheeling University Women's Cross Country team returns to action on Saturday, September 27th, when they compete at the Lock Haven Invitational at 10 AM.