ROCHESTER, NY -- The women's cross country team traveled to St. John Fisher University on Saturday to compete in the Empire 8 Cross Country Championship. At 12:00pm, eleven teams  and one hundred and eight athletes toed the line for the 6,000m race over the hilly course. Weather conditions were partly cloudy and 43 degrees. The women came into the meet having beat every Empire 8 team in regular season competition, except national powerhouse SUNY Geneseo. Be this as it may, wins over SUNY Brockport, Nazareth, and St. John Fisher were very close match ups during the season.

Just 2,000 meters into the race, the Highlanders found themselves in good position, and in 2nd place as a team, 28 points ahead of SUNY Brockport. Through the next 4,000m, SUNY Brockport would continue to narrow the gap, cutting the Highlanders lead to 17 points after 4,000m, heading into the last loop. The Highlanders would hold strong the last loop and end up ahead of 3rd place SUNY Brockport by 14 points. The scoring five for Houghton would all finish in the top 25 of the race, and receiving all-conference honors. In addition, Emberlynn Nolt would be awarded the Torchbearer Award for the Empire 8 Women, being the finisher on the top two teams with the highest GPA. 

RESULTS (108 Finishers)
4th - Noelle Linenfesler
13th - Amy Collins
14th - Emberlynn Nolt
20th - Aria Larson
25th - Jenna Binney
40th - Rachael Smith
47th - Risa Palmer

COACHES CORNER:
"We talked about a lot about intuition all week. Using instincts to race how you feel the most confident. On a course like this, there are tactics that could potentially work better than others. Our ladies chose to put themselves right where they needed to be from the gun, and hold. That's just been their mentality all season. Noelle Linenfelser was fed up with the lead pack after the first loop, and decided to take the lead and push the field. What a move. They beat several very good teams today. From top to bottom, this group decided that bringing positive energy, and grit to their races is who they wanted to be. I'm very proud of them."

The Highlanders will toe the line at Genessee Valley Park for the NCAA Niagara Regional Championships on 11/15. They will be able to race their top 7 runners at these championships.