Results

THE RUNDOWN
For their second year in a row, the Dallas Baptist Women's Cross Country team raced at the NCAA Division II National Championships.  Led by Senior All-American Madison Brown, the Lady Patriots finished in 14th, their best team placement in DBU history.
 
With a team score of 383, DBU was just 2 points shy of West Texas A&M and 32 points from a top-10 finish.  Adams State took home the team title for the third year running, scoring just 75 points.  Leading their brigade was individual national champion Stephanie Cotter, dominating the field with a time of 19:45.2.
 
DBU's scoring started with their top athlete Madison Brown.  Her time of 21:08.7 was just three seconds off her personal best mark in the 6k, earning her 21st overall.  Marissa Insinna followed suit, crossing the line in 44th with a 21:27.7, a personal best mark and just four spots out of All-American honors.  Rylee Cristan ran the best race of her cross country career, finishing 95^th with a time of 22:00.5, another personal-best mark.  In fourth was KayCee Keller, running a 22:21.3 for 126^th, followed by Emily Cole in 164th, running her personal-best 6k in 22:49.5. 
 
Emme O'Donnell and Giselle Luera struggled, slowly falling back as the race progressed, but still managed to finish with respectable placements and times.  O'Donnell came through in 195^th with a time of 23:11.5 while Luera finished 246^th in 24:28.8.  
 
Through the first mile, Brown had settled into the upper echelon of the field, cruising through in 33rd overall at 5:30 pace.  From there, she slowly picked runners off, dwindling down to 21st.  Insinna's consistent race strategy of reeling in huge numbers of athletes came to fruition, moving from 97th to 44th over the last 2.5 miles.  Cristan also picked up places after her first mile in 5:43, moving from 127 to 95.  Cole's jump into the final scoring position helped keep DBU in the top 15, a prime example of why racing seven is so important as well as the value of team racing. 
 
This season has been an outright success for the Lady Patriots.  DBU not only won their third straight Lone Star Conference Championship but raced better at the national stage than any team before them.  They beat their pre-season rank of 19th and were ranked as high as No. 7 in the nation.  The standard for excellence has been lifted once again under the leadership of coach Jacob Phillips, bringing DBU to even greater relevance on the national stage. 
 
DBU HEAD COACH JACOB PHILLIPS ON DBU'S HISTORIC DAY
"This was a special year for our women. We had known for a while that 2022 could be a big year for us with our senior class and with the group of women we had on our roster. I'm so proud of their hard work, their consistency, and the way that they support and encourage each other. I'm so thankful for the senior leadership we have on our team. Our top three finishers today were all seniors and have all played such an important role in helping us win three straight Conference Championships and make back-to-back trips to the NCAA Championships and back-to-back finishes in the top-20. As for the race today, we had asked them to run aggressively, and they did just that. It was fun watching them put all of their hard work to the test today and they ran brilliantly."
 
UP NEXT
 With the Cross Country season in the rearview mirror, the Lady Patriots will look to start the Indoor Track season with a bang at the Crimson & Gold Invitational on December 10.