Halterman, Taylor Women Race Past Field at IWU Invite

MARION, Ind. – Making her collegiate debut, freshman Jaynie Halterman posted a blazing time of 21:58.2 to claim first place by 14.1 seconds Friday evening as the Taylor women's cross country team won the season-opening Indiana Wesleyan Twilight Invitational for the fifth consecutive year.

Fourth-ranked TU easily cleared its 20-team competition with a score of 29 points, or 70 points fewer than the runner-up, No. 16 Grace. Taylor also topped No. 9 Indiana Wesleyan and No. 13 Huntington en route to re-establishing its status as a national title contender.

Halterman bested fellow Trojan, senior Ahna Neideck, for the top spot in the meet, with the fifth-year senior clocking a 22:12.3 to set a PR by fractions of a second.

Noel VanderWall came in with a time of 22:20.6 to take fourth overall, and Audrey Brinkruff ran a 22:58.8 for a ninth-place finish.

TU continued to pepper the leaderboard, as Samantha Patterson, Kaitlin Burden and Kennedy Applegate all placed within the top 20 of 213 total runners. Just behind them came another trio of Trojans, Emersyn Funk, Abby Mays and Lauren Saddington, who ran sub-24:00.0 times to finish among the top 30 individuals.

No. 4 Taylor looks to build on its success when it travels to Columbia, Missouri, for the Mizzou Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 27.