CHICAGO – Ole Miss women’s cross country finished runners-up in a hard-fought 6K race, while the Rebel men took fifth after another strong day of racing at Loyola’s Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational on Friday morning.
It came down to the wire in the championship women’s 6K, with the No. 25 Rebels narrowly finishing second to Furman by a score of 58-66, while also beating out ranked schools in No. 17 Wisconsin (third, 94), No. 30 Ohio State (sixth, 165) and No. 26 Michigan (seventh, 170). Ole Miss and Furman – who was receiving votes in the latest USTFCCCA National Coaches Poll – were almost even on the first three finishers across the line, but the Paladins clipped the Rebels with their fourth and fifth place finishers for the win.
Ole Miss notched a scoring spread of just 34 seconds and received a powerful one-two punch at the top of its results sheet Friday from seniors Loral Winn and Ryann Helmers. Winn led all Rebels with a third-place finish at a four-second PR time of 19:53.0, her second career sub-20 6K time. Helmers, Ole Miss’ top finisher in each race last season, was not far behind, finishing fourth at 19:55.7 – her third career sub-20 race.
Winn and Helmers are the lone runners in Ole Miss history with multiple career sub-20 times in a 6K race, today running the sixth and seventh in school history. Last season, Helmers ran the fastest in recorded Ole Miss history with a 19:37.15 at the SEC Championships, with Winn’s first sub-20 also coming at the conference meet at 19:57.87. In addition to Helmers’ 19:57.90 from the 2022 NCAA South Regional, the only other sub-20 times in recorded Ole Miss history belong to Clio Ozanne-Jaques from the 2018 SEC Championships (19:48.20), and All-American Sintayehu Vissa from the 2021 NCAA Championships (19:53.20).
Ole Miss also received impressive outings out of senior Skylar Boogerd (12th, 20:10.0, PR) and sophomore Sarah Schiffmann (22nd, 20:24.6, PR). Other Rebel women in competition on Friday included senior Kristel van den Berg (25th, 20:27.1), junior Hannah Ielfield (35th, 20:37.2, PR), senior Jocelyn Long (52nd, 20:58.9), junior Madison Hulsey (81st, 21:28.4, PR), sophomore Sophie Baumann (98th, 21:42.4), and junior Beth Arentz (105th, 21:57.0).
In the men’s championship 8K race, the No. 25 Rebels were without key newcomer Cruz Gomez,…
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