SUNDODGER INVITATIONAL: Bruin Women Open with 16th-Place Finish at UW Meet

Sundodger Invitational 6K Women's Open Results

SEATTLE, Wash. - Opening their 2011 season against runners from across the small-college spectrum, the George Fox University women’s cross country team placed 16th out of 17 teams in the Women’s Open 6K race of the Sundodger Invitational meet hosted by the University of Washington Saturday here at Lincoln Park.

The Bruin women scored 363 points with their five runners.  The University of British Columbia, an NAIA school, won the race with 47 points, well ahead of Whitman College, like George Fox an NCAA Division III school, with 110 points.

The top George Fox finisher was freshman Courtney Hochstetler, who came in 50th overall and 45th for team scoring with a time of 23:33.84 in her first college competition.  Other Bruin results saw Kate Freiheit run a 23:48.58 (64th overall / 57th for team scoring), Chelsea Sowards a 24:26.92 (102nd / 78th), Sarah MacKenzie a 24:4.50 (118th / 87th), and Alisha Haresnape a 25:15.64 (135th / 96th). 

Maria Bernard of British Columbia took top honors with a time of 21:41.00, over 18 seconds ahead of a 21:59.48 by runner-up Alison Jackson of Trinity Western University.

Four George Fox men - Joseph Pia, Kyle Dreibelbis, Allen Cassel, and Austin Morrell - also ran in the Men’s Open 8K race of the Sundodger Invitational, but there were discrepancies in the final results and the University of Washington meet organizers were attempting to correct the flaws.  Bruin results will be released as soon as the final updated results are available (as of late Sunday evening, they were still unpublished on the UW website).

NEXT: George Fox will find out more about its Northwest Conference opponents next Saturday when the Bruins compete in the Linfield College Preview Meet at Willamette Mission State Park near Brooks, Ore.  The first race is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m.