LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Trine University women's cross country team competed in their first NCAA Cross Country Championship meet on Saturday afternoon at Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky. Evie Bultemeyer [Fort Wayne, Ind. / Homestead] placed fourth at the event to secure her second career NCAA All-American award.
Bultemeyer finished with a time of 20:43.7, the best 6K time of her storied career. She started the race in the lead pack after the first two kilometers. The eventual winner Kassie Rosembaum began pulling away around the halfway point, but Bultemeyer was still very much in contention. A pair of runners caught her from behind in the final two kilometers to drop her to fourth, but the senior left everything on the course in a personal-best effort.
As a team, the Trine women were 28th overall in their first team appearance. Johns Hopkins were the team champions.
Sophomore Carol Haldeman [Syracuse, Ind. / Fairfield] was the next finisher for the Thunder at 22:38.2. She takes 15 seconds off her previous career-best time set last weekend at the Great Lakes Regional. Chloe Brittain [Wheeler, Mich. / Breckenridge] secured a time of 23:17.1 at the event.
A pair of freshmen wrapped up the scoring for Trine at the NCAA Championships. Lydia Randolph [Jefferson, Ohio / Edgewood Senior] clocked in at 23:20.0 and notched her season-best time by completing the 6K five seconds faster than her previous best last week. Chloe Goodrich [Burlington, Ind. / Carroll] crossed the line with a time of 23:53.8.
"We had a great experience with women at Nationals," Head Coach Zach Raber said postrace. "It's such a tough race to understand if you've never run at the national level before, but our women did well. Evie capped off a great XC career with a 4th place finish and a new personal best. Carol also had a fantastic race today. She moved up significantly throughout the race. The opportunity to run in the national championship was an awesome experience and I hope our women come back next year determined to make it again."