Wilmington, OH. – After missing their race last week at Carnegie Mellon due to injury, the Wheeling University Women's Cross Country team was back on the course Friday at the Jenna Strong XC Invitational. It was a 5K run to wrap up the regular season, with the Cardinals placing two runners in the top 70 of the event. Two more PR's were set on the day as the Cardinals made their final preparations for the 2026 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Cross Country Championships
Leading the way for the Cardinals was Jade Trowell, who was the top finisher for the Cardinals for the first time this season. The sophomore would come in 64th overall with a time of 22:17.3 And set a PR for the third straight event. After setting her 6K PR last time out at Youngstown State, Trowell would topple her 5K PR by over two minutes on the day. She has been one of the most improved Cardinals on the cross country course this season, knocking her old PRS by over a minute in each race. She has competed. With the 2026 MEC Cross Country Championship just under a month away, Trowell is looking to continue her streak of PRS on the conference Championship stage.
Finishing just six spots behind her was Luci Banks, who finished 70th overall with a time of 22:48.6. She would fall just Over a minute shy of her previous 5K PR, and was able to crack the top 70 of the event by a full second. Like Trowell, Banks has routinely been in the top three for the Cardinals all season long and looks to continue that success in November. Rounding out the top three for the Cardinals was freshman Miracle Jones, who ran a 5k for the first time in her Collegiate career. She would end up finishing 116th overall with a time of 28:15.9. Jones has been making the transition to Collegiate cross country throughout the season and will get her first taste of the championship stage in just two weeks.
Rounding out the field for the Cardinals were a pair of track athletes helping out the cross-country team in Hannah Schmidhuber and Fenne Sienaert. Schmidhuber competed in her first Collegiate cross country event, finishing 117th with a time of 28:16.4. finishing just under a second behind Jones from cracking the top three. Sienaert competed in her first cross-country event of the season as well and took home a 118th Place finish with a time of 28:16.6.
The Wheeling University Women's Cross Country Team returns to action on Saturday, November 7, When they run at the 2026 MEC Women's Cross Country Championships.
