The Rhodes women's cross country team took 1st place at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship, hosted by the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Senior captain Amy Paine led Rhodes with her 2nd place individual finish. Rhodes took 3 out of the top 5 spots en route to a team score of 39 points.
The victory was the second consecutive SCAC title for Rhodes, as the Lynx have now won six out of the last eight conference championships in women's cross country. Trinity University scored 57 points to beat DePauw University by 2 points for 2nd place. Centre College was 4th, while the University of the South was 5th out of 10 competing teams. DePauw sophomore Natalie Shaffer captured the individual SCAC title in 18:28, the second fastest performance in conference meet history.
Amy Paine raced to a seasonal best time of 18:44, making her the second fastest conference meet performer in school history, behind Nicole Horvath's 18:35 in 1995. Paine was followed immediately by senior captain Elizabeth Wester, who placed 3rd with a time of 19:05. Wester improved her finishing position by one spot from last season's conference meet. Junior Marie Brandewiede used an incredible finishing kick to take 5th place in 19:22. Rhodes' top three women all repeated their All-SCAC honors from the 2001 season. Joining her teammates as an All-SCAC honoree was freshman Haley McConaghy, who placed 13th with a personal best time of 19:56. McConaghy was one of three first year runners in the race to be named to the All-SCAC team. Senior Lauren Glas closed out the Lynx scoring in dramatic fashion: not only did she beat every other team's fifth runner, but her time of 20:10, good for 16th place, was a forty-second personal best. Glas improved her place at the conference meet by a remarkable 25 spots from the 2001 season. Senior captain Betsy Bogler and junior Abbey Walker rounded out the Lynx top seven by placing 26th and 31st, respectively. Bogler's time of 20:38 was a seasonal best by 47 seconds, as she continues to regain fitness after a late summer injury. Walker's time of 20:55 was a personal best, and represented a 66-second improvement from her most recent race on the same course just eight weeks ago. Freshman May King and senior Jessica Huber were the final Rhodes representatives at the meet, placing 33rd and 47th out of 78 competitors. Huber finished her collegiate cross country with a strong race in a personal best time of 21:47.
Head coach Robert Shankman commented on the team's successful defense of the SCAC title, "Our top 3 have been tough all season, but today it was our 4 through 9 runners that really stepped up. In particular, Haley and Lauren knew they had to close our 1-5 gap. Mentally, they were very tough. Elizabeth Wester also showed how tough she can be. She's been nursing a strained calf for several weeks and in quite a bit of pain. Despite the injury, she was able to focus on the race and take care of business. I am very pleased for our seniors. I've never worked with a finer group of athletes. They have led us to 3 SCAC titles in the last 4 years. It's nice that they are able to leave as champions."
Results
