Wheeling, W. Va. - With a young team taking the course, the Wheeling University Women's Cross Country team opened their 2025 season on Thursday evening at the West Liberty Invitational. Four of the five Cardinal runners were making their Cardinal debut at the event, with three of those runners taking the collegiate cross country course for the first time. Wheeling would finish ninth as a team, but had one runner crack the top 20 as they started their season strong.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was junior Madison Conrad, who just cracked the top 20 of the event and missed cracking the 20-minute mark by .1 seconds. Conrad would tackle the 5K course with a time of 20:00.1, while setting a mile pace of 6:27 on the day. She finished a whole second ahead of the runner behind her and was just five seconds shy of the runner in front of her. Among her fellow Mountain East Conference (MEC) competitors, Conrad would finish 15th in the field, trailing West Liberty's Lacey Dimit by 12 seconds. Conrad entered the day as one of two Cardinal runners with collegiate experience under their belts, and looks to continue to lean on that experience as the season continues.
Sitting behind her was the other veteran Cardinal on the track, senior Gabby Baiano, who finished 46th in the field. The senior would finish with a time of 21:33.9, setting a 6:57 mile pace, and finished just under a minute shy of her 5K PR, which she set at the Jenna Strong Invitational during the 2023 season. As the senior leader for the Cardinals, Baiano will look to continue to build on her success on the course as she continues to build towards the 2025 MEC Cross Country Championships.
The final three Cardinal runners were all making their collegiate debuts on the course, with Lucinda Banks, Jade Trowell, and Jezabella Cohen each debuting. Leading the trio was Banks, who took 54th with a time of 23:39.5, cracking the 24-minute mark in her season-opening race. Trowell would finish just under a minute behind her, taking 56th with a time of 24:30.0, while Cohen rounded out the day with a time of 29:13.0 to finish 59th at the event.
The Wheeling University Women's Cross Country team returns to action on Saturday, September 13th, when they run at the Bethany College Invitational.
