BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- The Yale women's cross country team competed well Friday in Lehigh University's Paul Short 6k Gold Race. The spread between the first 5 runners was 1 minute, further showing that the Bulldogs have great depth. Out of 46 teams, including five nationally ranked teams, the Bulldogs placed 23rd. Considering Ivy competition, they placed higher than both Columbia and Cornell.

It was a beautiful day to run fast, and the meet provided great experience with jostling for position amongst nearly 425 runners. Friday's environment was able to prepare the Bulldogs well for the competitive atmosphere at both the Pre-National Invitational and NCAA Regionals.  

Leading the Bulldogs, junior Kathryn Rodrigues improved her 6k time by more than a minute from last year to place 93rd and set a PR of 20:48.2. Seconds behind her, senior Kosana Weir crossed the line in 20:53.4 to place 102nd. Racing incredibly well as a first year, Claire Archer was the team's third runner with a time of 21:04.2. Junior Kyra Pretre set a massive PR by nearly 2 minutes to place fourth for the team. After taking a fall early in the race, first year Miranda Lorsbach got right back up and worked her way through the course to be the team's fifth runner. Overall, the Bulldogs had an average time of 21:10.7 for the 6k and will put in great work in the weeks ahead to sharpen up for the championship season. 

The Bulldogs will be dividing and conquering in the next two weeks as seven runners will head to the Pre-National Invitational in Stillwater, Okla., and part of the team will race in the Bronx, N.Y., for the ECAC meet.

Results from Friday's meet can be found at Leonetiming.com.