Nov. 13, 2010

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Under perfect conditions, 250 women thundered off for 6,000 meters of cross country action in Louisville’s E.P. Sawyer Park for the NCAA Cross Country Southeast Regional championship. The South Carolina team goal was to place all five scores in the top half of the field.

Coach Stan Rosenthal’s team came very close to achieving the goal. Junior Beatrice Biwott overcame getting buried at the start to finish in the top 50. She passed over 50 runners in the last several miles of the race, running a 6K PR of 21:38 for 48th place.

Also getting pushed back at the start was senior Ashley Evens and freshmen Scola Jepngetich and Liz Locke, along with junior Nicole Rheinlander who was five seconds further back at the mile. Evens, Jepngetich and Locke moved up much during the race. Evens ran a PR of 22:18 while Jepngetich used a blazing kick the last 600 meters to catch and pass Evens and 12 others to PR in 22:16. Jepngetich placed 78th while Evens came home in 83rd, her best placing at NCAA’s during her career.

Locke just missed the top half with her 127th placing. Rheinlander ended up in 150th place. The team place was 18th out of the 39 team in the race, just 6 points from 16th place. It was a good effort and a good race to end the season.