Trip to Nationals for McReynolds
William Penn Women’s Athletics
Bettendorf–Valinn McReynolds (Bellville, Texas, Masters of Business Leadership) put to rest some unfinished business as the William Penn women’s cross country team ended its regular season at the Midwest Collegiate Conference Championships Saturday.
The Lady Statesmen placed fifth out of six teams with 131 points. St. Ambrose won its first league crown since 2005, slipping past Mount Mercy 40-48. The Fighting Bees now advance to compete in the NAIA National Championships on November 17 in Vancouver, Wash.
Anne Bruno of Mount Mercy won the individual crown in the 5K race with a time of 19:24, four seconds ahead of Viterbo’s Chelsee Lisk as well as McReynolds.
McReynolds, who returned for her fourth season as a graduate student this fall, was only a fraction of a second behind Lisk (both were at 19:28). The bronze finisher will join the Queen Bees, Bruno, Lisk, Liz Mosbach and Dana Ewan of Mount Mercy, and Kelsey Carbajo of Grand View at nationals. She is the seventh Lady Statesmen runner, and the first since 2005, to qualify for nationals since William Penn joined the NAIA in 2001.
“Valinn has been our leader all year and finished the regular season with another great race,” Coach Cody Ingold said. “She was several spots back with a few hundred yards left, but knew what she needed to do and did a great job of picking off runners at the end.”
Tarah Alexander (Fr., Cedar, Iowa), one of two members from the Lady Statesmen basketball team who competed Saturday, was impressive in placing 20th out of 74 individuals with a time of 20:28.
Sade Myers (So., Honolulu, Hawaii, Elementary Education) was 43rd at 21:57, while Rosemary Bailey (Jr., Fayetteville, Ark., Communication) was 55th at 22:31. Jessi Naughtin (So., Moravia, Iowa), the other player from the basketball program, rounded out her team’s scoring in 73rd place (25:38).
