St. Louis, Mo. - WKU women's cross country made a fantastic start to its season as the Lady Toppers finished second at the Forest Park Cross Country Festival, with all five scorers placing in Top 25.
Individual Results | Dual Results
In the dual-meet format, WKU notched wins over host Saint Louis, Southern Illinois and Missouri-Kansas City to earn its best team finish in an event since winning the 2013 Evansville Invitational.
"The team ran well today, and it was a good start to the season," said head coach Erik Jenkins. "They competed well in a good field, and I believe there is room for consistent improvement. Today's effort gave us a realistic view of the areas we need to improve in to be successful later in the season."
Leading the Lady Toppers was Katie Lever who finished with the fourth-best time at the meet at 18:31. Lever has been the top WKU runner in the last seven meets, while placing in the Top 10 in four of those events.
The senior duo of Lindsey Hinken and Taylor Carlin also registered Top 10 times as the two placed eighth and ninth, respectively. Hinken notched her first Top 10 time since the 2013 Sun Belt Championship with a mark of 18:45, while Carlin came in just behind her with a time of 18:55.
Savannah Ames (19th, 19:35) and Baylee Shofner (22nd, 19:41) rounded out the scoring for the Lady Toppers in an impressive season-opening performance.
