In Greenville N.C., Blanca Fernandez continued her dominance at the American Athletic Conference Championship, and made history as Temple’s first Women’s Cross Country Conference Champion.
She had a season best time of 20:06 in the race – her fourth title this year. Coach James Snyder said regarding Fernandez, “That’s never happened on the women’s side. Having her take that win over Emily and pulling away with relative ease at the end, that’s such an exciting moment for her and for our program.”
Fernandez felt a frenzy of excitement after the race, and commented on the historic win: “Seeing how the race was, I decided to make a move very late. That’s what I do when I feel good and confident enough to win the race. So I did, and (Emily) came with me for a bit but then I looked back and saw that nobody was coming behind me, so that’s when I said ‘ok, I’m winning this race.”
Sophomore Katie Pinson placed 25th with a personal best time of 21:46.61. Freshman Alexis O’Shea finished in the top 50, placing 44th with a personal best time of 22:22.24.
Temple finished 10th out of 11 teams, finishing ahead of Cincinnati while Tulsa took the crown. Temple needed only 25 points to scoop up the 6th place position.
Coach Snyder talked about the difference saying, “It’s a half step forward from where we’ve been, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. My challenge to the girls moving forward is to continue to work together, to find one another and push this along.”
The Owls will next compete in two weeks at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional at Princeton.
Temple Results below:
1. Blanca Fernandez, 20:06.00
25. Catherine Pinson, 21:46.61
44. Alexis O’Shea, 22:22.24
69. Katie Leisher, 23:21.93
71. Megan Schneider, 23:32.24
(75). Ashton Dunkley, 23:48.20
(77). Brigit Andersson, 24:32.11
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