RESULTS

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Three top-10 finishes and a 2nd place team finish from the Royals highlighted the first full distance race of the cross country season for the Royals. Bethel scored 65 team points to take the runner-up position at the Hamline Invite. "Our experienced runners led the way for us today, as it should be," said Head Coach Joe Stephens. "We had two front runners today in Grace (Cole) and Erika (Swanson) and we had some solid support behind them from many girls who were racing the first 6k of their lives."

Captain Grace Cole was the top runner for Bethel in 3rd place with a massive lifetime best of 58 seconds. Cole moved up in the second half of the race to earn a new personal best of 23:12, which stands as the 14th best time in program history. "Grace had a breakthrough race today," said Stephens. "That was a product of hard-work, discipline, and smart racing on her part." Erika Swanson held the lead from 3k to 4k and faded to 8th place. But her courageous racing earned her a personal best of 23:34 the 18th fastest time in program history. Freshman Evie Hage had a strong showing in the first 6k of her career. Hage took 10th overall while moving through the pack in the final mile. Her time of 23:37 is the 20th best time in program history. Raina Moorjani took 19th place with her time of 24:16 and senior Malakai Holloway rounded out the scoring in 26th place with her time of 24:54.

"We still have some growing to do as a team," said Stephens. "Training is going great and this is an indicator of that. Our younger athletes were challenged not only with their first 6k, but with a fairly challenging course today. We will continue to grow into this process through the conference and region meets." The Royals will take to the course again in two weeks when they race at the Augustana Invitational in Rock Island, Illinois on Saturday, October 16th.