Women’s cross country team running well before conference race

The Missouri Southern Women’s Cross Country team earned third place Saturday at the Jackling Jocks Invite hosted by Missouri S&T in Rolla.

The No. 17 Lions earned a score of 72 points overall.

Junior Kaitlyn Belisle, from Enid, Okla., led her team in the race, earning sixth place with a time of 18:05.29.

Senior Marlee Tegenkamp, from Lee’s Summit, Mo., earned a time of 18:18.91 placing tenth.

Sophomore Lauren Baehr, from Owensville, Mo, placed 14 with a time of 18:32.58.

Cassy Kendrick, a senior from Ponca City, Okla., placed 22 with a time of 18:50.33.  

“We were missing two of our top runners, and we still all had better times than I think we really expected to get,” Kendrick said.

“We were surprised by that and we took third barely, and all of us were happy with our times. We had the five of us less than 19 minutes, all within a minute of each other.”

Freshmen Addie Mengwasser, from Chamois, Mo., and Jet Hovis, from Farmington, Mo., placed 25 and 38, respectively.

Kelsie Hutsell, a sophomore from Mountain Grove, Mo., finished at No. 52.

“All in all, they’re beginning to really be able to pack up and get in tighter and I see a lot of improvement from our freshmen,” Head Coach Patty Vavra said.

“Several of the girls had PR’s [personal records] for life.”

The Lions will take a week off, and will continue their season on October 20 at the MIAA Championships hosted by Northwest Missouri State in Maryville.