Steinmetz Captures Victory and Course Record at Dordt
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa -- Bruin freshman Grace Steinmetz continued her astounding debut cross country season at today's Holiday Inn Classic with an overall victory in the women's six-kilometer run. Steinmetz jumped to an early lead and was never challenged as she ran to a comfortable win of 22 seconds over second-place Madison Matzek of Minnesota State-Mankato. A few superlatives that describe Steinmetz's 20:40.4 effort today include a 53-second improvement on her own former school record set two weeks ago (21:33.7), a 1:12 reduction in the existing course record on the Dordt University Prairie course (21:52.6), and a time that currently sits as the second fastest in the NAIA this fall (Jaynie Halterman-Taylor 21:04.7).
The multiple-loop course on the campus of Dordt University features firm footing and gently rolling terrain. This morning's race was conducted in ideal conditions, with temperatures in the low 50s and little wind. Due to the growing size of the field, two races were held, with 246 female athletes participating. All Bruin women competed in the Gold race, which included the top ten runners from all seventeen entered teams. An outstanding five of six Bruins crossed the finish in significant lifetime or season bests. Maggie Boley continued her strong season with a minute and a half reduction in her season's best, running 23:19.1 for 79th place. Wren Hofacket was 1:45 better than her previous best in 132nd and 25:05.2. Ashley Guatemala ran her first 6K of the season and reduced her lifetime best by over a minute with a 26:19.3 and 144th place. Lydia Cherotich cut three minutes from her last outing, finishing in 146th in 26:37.4. Cloey Usher rounded out the Bruin women runners with a 149th-place finish in 28:53.1. The women smashed their own team time (runners 1 through 5 total) by over ten minutes as they finished 15th in the 17-team field.
Head Coach Craig Christians: "It's really exciting the see the huge improvements we saw from our group today. While we may not be ready to contend for a spot near the top, I'm so encouraged by the way these women pour everything they have into the race. I hope it was as satisfying for them as it was for me to see all of the personal records. I'm not putting a ceiling on how good we can be. We'll just go to work for a couple of weeks and take another shot at it. I feel good about our direction."
The Bruins will compete against NAIA-only competition next on Oct. 25 at the Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic, hosted by Doane University and the College of Saint Mary. The meet will be held at Mahoney State Park with the first race starting at 10:00 AM.