JOPLIN, Mo. -- The John Brown University women's cross country team shaved off eight minutes from its team time and finished in 11th place at the annual Missouri Southern State Stampede on Saturday morning.
Not only did the Golden Eagles show signs of improvement in its team time, on average, of its top-five finishers, John Brown took off 40 seconds from its average time.
"The conditions and course were tougher this week," said head coach Scott Schochler, "but we performed better and continue to improve each race -- the entire team was much faster.
"Carly (Coney) continues to lead the team, and Annie (Brown) and Reagan (Roth) are getting stronger each week. Abbie (Melby) put in a very nice performance for the women and is showing some consistency that we haven't seen before.
"Their workouts have been great all season and to see that beginning to translate into solid races is encouraging."
Coney finished 30th overall with a time of 20:22.95 to lead the Golden Eagles.
Sophomore Reagan Roth turned in a time 18 seconds better than her first race, 20:54.71, to finish in 50th place while junior Annie Brown grabbed 56th overall with a time of 21:01.11, 73 seconds better than her first race of the season.
Senior Abbie Melby nabbed 75th place in 21:24.04 and sophomore Haley Newcomb's time of 22:14.30 earned her 104th overall.
Cowley C.C. (Kan.) won the team title with 55 points while Allen County Community College (Kan.) finished second with 93 points. John Brown totaled 284 points. Allen County's Kaitlyn Shoemaker's 18:08.32 performance earned her the individual title.
The Golden Eagles return to action on Saturday (Oct. 1) at Experimental Farms on the campus of the University of Arkansas. JBU will take part in the annual Chile Pepper Festival, beginning at 10:20 a.m.
Sports on 09/21/2016