COLUMBIA, Mo. - Kansas Wesleyan placed a program-best 14th in the team standings at the NAIA Women's National Cross Country Championship on Friday.
KWU finished with 449 points in the 6,000-meter race at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course. The Master's (California) won the team title with 93 points while Saint Mary was third with 125 in the field of 35 teams.
Two Coyotes finished in the top 100. Madisyn Ehrlich led the pack finishing 49th in a time of 22 minutes, 8.4 seconds. It was a vast improvement from 2023 when she qualified as an individual and placed 101st in 23:36.1 in the race at Vancouver, Washington. Kierra Jensen was KWU second runner placing 77th in 22:30.9.
Josie Koppes was 113th in 22:53.3 - one minute faster than her time of 23:53.3 last season when she was 131st. Kirstin Hackney finished 142nd (23:08.8) on Friday and Charlee Lind 148th (23:12.2) to round out the KWU scoring. Like Ehrlich and Koppes, Lind was dramatically better than last fall when she placed 209th (24:32.1) at the national meet.
Alayna Behrman finished 169th (23:22.0) and Haley Nordhus 240th (24:05.5) for KWU in Friday's race. A total of 326 runners crossed the finish line.
"The women executed really well at a very, very high level and kept a lot of composure throughout the race," KWU coach Garrett Young said. "They put together a really strong performance as a group."