Oct. 2, 2015

BETHLEHEM, PA. – The South Carolina cross country team showed tremendous progress at the 42nd annual Paul Short Run Friday morning, hosted by Lehigh. The team sent two women to the open 6K race, and 12 into the “gold” 6K, and all but two would finish with new career-best times.

As a team, the Gamecocks finished 18th out of 35, improving from 2014’s race in both the team finish (19th in 2014) and combined places (497 in 2015, 576 in 2014). Mary Reiser would lead the way for the team, and marked her place in program history in the process.

Reiser finished 22nd overall in a field of 312 runners, recording a new personal best at 21:10. The finish puts her fifth in program history for the 6K distance, just ahead of teammate Anna Todd’s 2014 performance at the regional championship (21:11.70). In an interesting subplot, Reiser was pressed by her twin sister, Caroline, who runs for East Carolina. The two were side-by-side throughout the race, with Mary edging her out at the line for family bragging rights.

“The highlight performance of the day was Mary, that kind of time moves her into a different category of runner – into the top 20 in the conference and region,” said coach Andrew Allden. “She got out real well, one of her big goals is to crack the top 25 at regionals and 21:10 puts her in the hunt for that.”

Each of the team’s top seven scored finishers recorded career bests, and sophomore Allie Sprague added a 81st-place finish to her new best. The young Gamecock roster made considerable jumps in time and had five sophomores or freshmen in its top seven. The growth has provided Allden and the coaching staff a unique perspective as the team gets ready for the home stretch of the season.

“To me, our performance at this meet last year was by far our best performance of the year, and this year we did even better but still have a feeling that we still have room to improve,” Allden observed. “That’s very encouraging to me as a coach.

“Place-wise I was disappointed with where we finished, but as always I look at our roster and the thing that stood out to me was that Ashley Miller was our only senior that we lined up. We finished a junior, four sophomores and a freshman in our top six. The 22:30 mark is a big number for me, that puts you at the top half of the conference and we had four under that time today.”

Before the “gold” race, a pair of Gamecocks competed in the women’s open 6K. Junior Sarah Falta finished 49th and sophomore Sarah Taylor finished 87th in a field of 298 runners. Both finished with new career bests as well.

Up next, the Gamecocks will have a weekend off before heading to Louisville for the Pre-Nationals Meet on Oct. 17. The team will be able to preview the course where the 2015 NCAA championship meet will be held.