Final Results

THE RUNDOWN
No. 9 DBU took care of business at the Inaugural Old Glory Gallup, winning the meet with a score of 28. Arkansas Tech finished in second scoring 72 points, followed by Missouri Southern State in third with 110.

It was all Madison Brown from the starting line into the finishing shoot. Her time of 17:18.5 earned her a first-place finish and stands as the new school record. Marissa Insinna was across next, finishing second with a time of 17:27.1. In third place was KayCee Keller, dashing down the final stretch to maintain the 1-2-3 finish for the Lady Patriots, running a 17:54.7. Improving upon her personal-best 5k mark set just two weeks ago at the Chili Pepper XC Festival was Emily Cole, running an impressive 18:25.8 to finish 11th. Rylee Cristan rounded out the scoring 5, placing 13th at 18:30.5. DBU raced well outside of their scorers too, highlighted by Giselle Luera who finished as the sixth girl, running a massive personal best of 18:56.7 to place 25th.

Brown was out in front in the opening straight and never looked back, leading the field from start to finish. Not far behind were Insinna and Keller before Insinna broke away for her signature final mile. Cole and Cristan stayed in the mix, even after the top 3 broke away, going stride-for-stride with the top pack to keep the team score low. Luera fought the entire way, moving up with each passing mile to cap the best race of her collegiate career.

MEASURING UP
Though there were no national contenders present to match up against, DBU raced hard to continue proving why they deserve to be ranked in the top 10 programs in the nation. DBU is racing on par with their national ranking, which is an exciting place to be. Brown continues to impress meet after meet, but the team's success has a lot to do with the 2nd-7th girls showing up and getting their jobs done. When the races get deeper and the ladies get faster, this group of gals will show they have what it takes to perform at their best when it matters most.

In a vacuum, being the 9th best team in the nation is impressive, but the context of the South-Central Region is important. All other schools aside, DBU sits at 4th in the region behind the behemoths of Adams State, Colorado School of Mines, and University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Those three could very well be the best three teams in the nation, only split by Division II powerhouse Grand Valley State. Then, not far behind DBU are Western Colorado and Colorado Christian, ranked 11th and 12th respectively. That means half of the top 12 teams in the nation are represented by one region. Though winning a race with room to spare is a feather to put in the cap, the competition only spikes from here.

HEAD COACH JACOB PHILLIPS ON HOSTING THE OLD GLORY GALLOP
"This was a fun event to host and I'm thankful to my administration for making this event a reality! I'm glad that our young men and women got a chance to show off in front of family and friends! Now we get a chance to turn our focus to the conference championships!"

UP NEXT
The Patriots turn their attention to postseason racing, starting off with the Lone Star Conference Championships. The race will be on November 5th at the River Creek Golf Course in Wichita Falls, Texas.