Wheeling, W. Va. – Last week, the Wheeling University Women's Cross Country Team was supposed to wrap up their regular season at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational. However, due to injuries, the team was forced to back out of the race at the last minute. To make up for missing that run, the team has added one additional meet, as they head to the Wilmington Invitational on Saturday in their final run before the 2026 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Women's Cross Country Championship.
It was a run on the NCAA DI stage last time out when the team competed at the Youngstown State Invitational back on September 26. It would be the second straight NCAA DI meet for the Cardinals as they competed in a field that included 85 runners. Wheeling would continue their growth from the first race of the season, placing two in the top 60 of the event. Each of the top three runners would improve their time from the Robert Morris Invitational, while one of those runners would hit a PR in the event. While Wheeling was the only NCAA DII school in the field, it was a good test for the runners to take on a drier course after dealing with muddy conditions in their season opener.
In a day driven by individual results, it was sophomore
Jade Trowell that led the effort, setting her second straight PR. After dropping a minute off of her 6K PR at Robert Morris, Trowell would take off another minute at Youngstown State with a time of 28:52 to finish 59
th in the field. She would just edge out Geneva's Ava Feterolf to crack the events top 60. While she is primarily a track and field athlete competing in the 400 and 800 meter dashes, Trowell has used cross-country season to help her in her training and has excelled in 2026. She has set a new PR in each of her two 6K races this season. It has routinely been the second place runner for the Cardinals. As she gets set to round out the regular season, Trowell will look to once again lower her 6K time as she prepares to compete at the MEC Championships.
The highest individual finisher for the Cardinals was senior
Madison Conrad, who took 40
th overall with a time of 26:32. She would hold an average mile pace of 7:07, while taking off 20 seconds from her run at the Robert Morris Invitational. Conrad has been the team's top runner at each of their first two events of the season, and is coming under 27 minutes in. Both runs. After finishing just three spots shy of an All-MEC Honor a season ago, the senior is looking to finish out her career strong and get into the top 20 of the conference this season. Rounding out the Cardinal top three was
Luci Banks, who placed 64
th with a time of 29:23.2. while it wasn't a PR for Banks, it was the biggest time drop from event 1 to event 2 for any cardinal as she took just under 2 minutes off of her time. From, Robert Morris.
Saturday's Invitational will be hosted by Wilmington College and be run in Wilmington, Ohio. The 6K Course features rolling hills that loop around the campus with three different laps encompassing the competition field. As they round out the regular season, the Cardinals will compete against colleges from both NCAA DII and DIII as they run their final regular season meet before the conference Championship. With the Cardinals already having lowered their times in each of their first two races, the team looks to do just that once again as they wrap up their regular season runs.
The Details
The Wilmington Invitational is scheduled for Friday, October 16, With the women's 6K set to begin at 4:30 PM. Stay tuned to wucardinals.com For the live stats result as well as a full recap of the event following the race.
