Santa Clara, Calif. - Racing at the Bronco Invitational hosted by Santa Clara, the Pacific cross country team posted record setting performances en route to a 7th place finish on Saturday, October 13. As a team, the Tigers finished with a team time of 1:35:38.70 with an average pace of 19:07.74 for the 5000m race.
"Awesome day today," said head coach Josh Jones. "The ladies ran smart and really showed that they can compete."
Leading the way for the Tigers was freshman Lindsay Wourms who posted a Pacific 5000m record 18:23.00 on the day, breaking the previous record by a full :12 seconds and her own personal best by :26 seconds. Overall, Wourms took home a top-10 finish as the freshman earned seventh place at the meet of 197 runners. Said Jones, "Lindsay, running a very smart race, stayed with the leaders and gave everything she had that last mile to keep the pace and it ended up be a school record, plus a 26 sec PR."
In addition to Wourms' personal record, Pacific saw all five of its other runners reach new personal heights as freshman Becky Grabow's time of 18:47.6 was :17 seconds faster than her previous best while freshman Mia Knipper's 19:16.1 came in :45 seconds better. Just back of Knipper, freshman Lauren Nakaso bested her personal record by :43 seconds after posting a 19:19.8. For all three Tigers, their times at the Bronco Invitational put their names in the top-10 all-time in 5000m races at Pacific.
"Becky showed how much endurance she has, by speeding up on command and ran a great race finishing with a sub 19 min 5k for the first time ever," said Jones. "Mia showed signs all year of putting out a great race and proved it today having a 45 sec pr to run a 19:16. It was her first time under 20 min for the 5k. Lauren gutted out a great race for her as well and held on to run her first sub 20 min 5k."
"The ladies really set themselves up well for Big West in two weeks. This meet was a confidence booster coming off of last week's race and we want to ride this momentum for our last year in the Big West."
