Dahlonega, GA - Women's Cross Country finished fourth overall this weekend at the D-II Southeast Region Preview with a time of 2:03:22, an average of 24:44 per runner. 
 
The time is now the second best 6K time for the women's program, breaking the previous time established during the team's last race. 
 
Cecily Anderton ran the second fastest 6K time in program history for North Greenville and finished 11^thoverall, crossing the finish line in 23:43.3 seconds. Riley Shope finished just behind Anderton in 12^th place, a second less with a time of 23:43.6. Her time was the third fastest time in program history. Riley Nicholson clocked in at 24:09 and finished 16^th overall. 
 
Emma Bright finished 41^st with a time of 25:45 followed by Paris Alsup who finished in 26:01 in 47^th. Zoie Justice finished 59^th with a time of 27:56 followed by Kylie Copeland who finished 65^th with a time of 28:23. 
 
From Coach Stober
"We left today's race with one team that performed extremely well and one team that simply did not have a good day. The women raced first and had one of the best performances as a team in program history. Two weeks ago our women's team recorded the 2^nd fastest team average for 6K in program history (25:10). Today they averaged a full 30 seconds faster as a team and improved their 2^nd fastest team average in program history with an average time of 24:40. Anytime that we can average under 25:00 over 6K for our women is a great day…averaging 24:40 is just phenomenal. We were led by our two true freshmen, Cecily Anderton and Riley Shope, who finished within a second of each other. Cecily's personal best time moves her from #4 all-time to #2 all-time in program history. Riley's personal best time moved her from #8 all-time all the way up to #3 all-time. We had another young lady etch her name in the top 10 all-time for 6K in program history. Riley Nicholson ran a MASSIVE personal best which moves her up to #6 on the all-time list. Emma Bright had her best race since her freshman year. She's really pushed herself over the past few weeks and we are starting to see signs of what we know she is capable of. I was really proud of how she attacked today's race and the mindset that she had throughout the race. She ran #4 for us today which I hope is a big confidence booster for her. Kaylee Copeland also stood out to me today. Similar to Emma, I've seen Kaylee really pushing herself during practices and races recently. That shows me that she's getting back into form. She also attacked today's race and ran her fastest 6K since her freshman year. I'm excited to see the progress that she continues to make. Overall, I was extremely happy with how our women ran today. 
 
It was a different story for us on the men's side. We simply did not perform well. We know that we will encounter days like today, but it doesn't make it any easier when it happens. Fortunately we have the opportunity to bounce back in six days when we have the chance to race on a fast course against what we expect to have some really solid competition. We have no excuses for how we performed today, but we know that we are much better than that. We did have a few bright spots. Matthew Heath ran top five for us today for the first time in his career. Not only did he run top five for us, he finished as our #2. I thought he ran a great race and I'm really proud of his effort today. Cohen MacDonald also had a solid race. It was good to see him bounce back from a not so great race a couple of weeks ago. He ran this race much better and ended up with a PB. David Kushnir also had a good race and was able to continue his streak of races with a personal best (three in a row). David has worked hard and it's exciting to see his progression. I told our men that though it was a disappointing day it's certainly not due to lack of hard work or effort. These guys have trained hard since the beginning of the summer, and they've endured a decent amount of adversity during that time. But I believe that adversity has only made us stronger and grown us closer together. We've got a good group of guys that are capable of being a really competitive team within our conference and region. We've just got to get a few of those guys healthy and do better with some of the little things. I'm still proud of these guys and I love these guys. We are looking forward to the opportunity to bounce back next Friday in Charlotte."

Next Up 
The Crusaders will run in the Royals Cross Country Challenge next weekend.