Mavericks to Run in Summit Championship
Oct 27, 2016 | Cross Country
OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha cross country team returns to action this weekend at the Summit League Championship on Saturday, Oct. 29 at Spring Lake Park in Macomb, Ill.
The Mavericks finished fifth at last year's championship where South Dakota took home the team title. The women's meet begins at 11 a.m.
"Our young but talented group takes on the first championship challenge of year as we head into Macomb,” said Cliff Cisar, assistant cross country coach. “We have great momentum coming off our best team race of the year at the NCAA Regional Preview Meet, a race that led to a very large percentage of our girls running career-best 6k's.
“We have had excellent training the past couple of weeks, fine tuning what there is left to prepare us for the league championships. We look forward to leaving it all out there Saturday morning."
Most recently, freshman Renata Valquier-Chavez recorded the fastest time for the Mavericks at the NCAA Regional Preview at Iowa on Oct. 1, where all 11 Omaha runners posted season or career bests.
Valquier-Chavez, who led the team for the second straight meet, finished 28th overall with a time of 22:28.6 over the 6K course, 1:06 better than her previous personal best at that distance.
Willa Koenig was second for Omaha and 29th overall in a time of 22:28.8, also a personal best at 6K by a time of 25 seconds.
Kayla Sabotin ran third for the Mavericks and finished 32nd with a time of 22:46.5 while breaking her previous season and career-best by 49 seconds. Alyssa Averhoff was 10 spots back in 42nd place with a time of 23:17.9, besting her previous season best by 51 seconds.
Finishing up the scoring for Omaha and running 43 seconds faster than her previous season best, Sarah Steffensmeier finished 53rd overall with a time of 23:40.6.
Following the championship, the Mavericks will compete in the NCAA Regionals at Iowa City, Iowa on Friday, Nov. 11.
