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Results: A Race | B Race
INDIANAPOLIS – Southwest Baptist University clinched its first-ever Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Women’s Cross Country Championship Saturday at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois.
The Bearcats totaled 53 points to score a 19-point win over Drury University (72), which rallied from eighth place in 2019 to post the program’s best finish in school history, besting a third-place result in 2018.
Defending champion University of Southern Indiana finished third overall with 85 points, just one point ahead of the University of Illinois Springfield (86) in fourth. Rounding out the eight-team “A” race was the University of Indianapolis (124), Lewis University (130), Truman State University (186) and Lindenwood University (186).
Due to the league’s strict COVID-19 safety protocols, the top-four teams from the GLVC East Divisional and West Divisional qualified for the “A” race and earned the right to vie for the GLVC Championship.
After claiming wins at the GLVC Triangular and GLVC East Divisional in record-setting fashion, UIndy senior Lauren Bailey stamped her name in the GLVC record book with a winning 6,000-meter time of 20 minutes, 23.48 seconds, breaking the previous Conference record of 20:26.03 set by Southern Indiana’s Emily Roberts in 2016.
Throughout the race, Bailey ran with defending GLVC Champion Elysia Burgos of Southwest Baptist, but took off in the final two kilometers to earn a 27-second victory over Burgos (20:50.74), who improved on her winning time of 21:05.87 from a year ago.
Illinois Springfield junior Taryn Christy (21:29.99) equaled her third-place result from 2019, while Southern Indiana senior Jennifer Comastri (21:39.46) improved to fourth place after finishing fifth the past two years. Drury senior Claire McCune (21:41.76) finished fifth this year, making it four straight top-10 finishes at the GLVC Championships as she won the title in 2017 and 2018 and placed eighth last year.
Southwest Baptist senior Tabitha Weber (21:51.89) finished sixth, while Drury junior Katie McCune (21:55.66), SBU sophomore Tessa Valdivia (22:02.28), Lindenwood junior Najwa Chouati (22:05.70) and Lewis senior Kassady Learn (22:11.09) finished in the top 10. Rounding out the top 15 for All-Conference accolades were Illinois Springfield senior Gloria Esarco (22:13.61), USI freshman Allison Morphew (22:29.39), UIndy junior Melissa Spencer (22:29.71), Drury freshman Elizabeth Stinson (22:33.47), and USI sophomore McKenna Cavanaugh (22:39.72).
In the “B” race held prior to the Championship race, Rockhurst University (29) placed all five scorers in the top 11 to score the win. Missouri S&T (51), McKendree University (84), William Jewell College (88) and the University of Missouri-St. Louis (111) closed out the five-team field. Missouri S&T sophomore Krista Hilmas crossed the line first in 23:38.08.
At the conclusion of the GLVC Championship, USI’s Morphew earned GLVC Freshman of the Year honors as the highest-placed newcomer and Southwest Baptist head coach Corey McElhaney was voted by his peers as GLVC Coach of the Year – a first for an SBU mentor.
On Monday, the Conference office will announce the honorees and team winner of the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award.
For the first time in league history, the GLVC Championship was carried live on the GLVC Sports Network. The broadcast can be found in the “On Demand” section on all GLVCSN platforms, including GLVCSN.com, GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, as well as GLVCSN OTT platforms on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV.
2020 GLVC POSTSEASON AWARDS
GLVC Champion/Runner of the Year
Lauren Bailey, Indianapolis
Freshman of the Year
Allison Morphew, Southern Indiana
Coach of the Year
Corey McElhaney, Southwest Baptist
All-Conference Honorees (in order of top-15 finish)
Lauren Bailey, Indianapolis
Elysia Burgos, Southwest Baptist
Taryn Christy, Illinois Springfield
Jennifer Comastri, Southern Indiana
Claire McCune, Drury
Tabitha Weber, Southwest Baptist
Katie McCune, Drury
Tessa Valdivia, Southwest Baptist
Najwa Chouati, Lindenwood
Kassady Learn, Lewis
Gloria Esarco, Illinois Springfield
Allison Morphew, Southern Indiana
Melissa Spencer, Indianapolis
Elizabeth Stinson, Drury
McKenna Cavanaugh, Southern Indiana