Rye Demolishes Record at Seminole Valley Stampede

Cedar Rapids--Claire Rye (Fr., Plymouth, Iowa, Biology) moved herself to the top of the record books Saturday as she paced the Statesmen women's cross country team at the Mount Mercy Seminole Valley Stampede.

As a team, William Penn was 13th out of 17 programs with 393 points.  Aquinas (Mich.) topped the field with 63 points, while Kansas Wesleyan was close behind with 70 points for the silver.

Isabelle Aimonette of Missouri Baptist led the 177-runner field with a 6K time of 21:34.0.

Rye was 32nd overall, but her time of 23:48.1 set a new school record, previously held by Valinn McReynolds at 24:09 in 2005.

Emmalee Wells-Stout (Fr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Business Management) finished second for the navy and gold, taking 99th at 26:25.5, while Briana Admire (Jr., Galesburg, Ill., Biology) placed 108th in a time of 26:49.4.

Audrey Etter (Fr., Remsen, Iowa, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management) crossed the line in 27:15.4 to place 120th, while Nathaly Peralta (Fr., Dallas, Texas, New Media) rounded out the lineup in 149th at 29:40.9.

Mallory Ostroski (Fr., Le Grand, Iowa, Kinesiology) headlined the remaining Statesmen harriers, taking 157th in 30:18.0.

"Our women took another step forward and improved as whole, while competing against some great conference and national competitors," Head Coach Caleb Drake said.  "We had multiple ladies run lifetime bests for the 6K, highlighted by Claire Rye breaking the school record as a freshman.  We are closing the gap on some teams we have had our eye on this season, and I anticipate the best race for this group is yet to come."

"We came into today essentially feeling like this was the true beginning of our competitive season," Drake said.  "Not that the competitions before this did not matter, but they were more on the side of working and shaping different things for the second half of our season."

Next Up: William Penn takes a couple weeks off before traveling to Ashland, Neb. on Saturday, October 25 to compete in the Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic.