EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Claire Brown ran a career best time and led SIUE women's cross country to a second-place finish at Friday's SIUE Cross Country Challenge.
Brown, a senior from Petersburg, Ill., ran the 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes, 35.4 second, topping her previous best by more than 20 seconds.
The Cougars scored 65 points to edge out Bellarmine for second place. Southeast Missouri was the team champion for the Challenge with four runners in the top five. The Redhawks scored 20 points.
"I think the women competed well," said SIUE Head Coach Eileen McAllister. "They made a lot of progress. We still need to do some work in the middle of our race. We have to commit to it and not back down."
Renee Johns-Goodenough was SIUE's No. 2 runner for the event. Her 13th place time was 19:28.0. She was followed by Conradette King in 15th (19:54.9), Emily Conlon in 21st (20:12.4), Haley Briggs in 26th (20:29.1), and Erin Kennedy in 29th (21:05.3).
"I think everybody had a great experience," said McAllister. "We had the weather break for us today so that was huge."
