Running pack leads to solid season
By MOLLY McVOY
Saint Mary's Editor
Despite a tough conference finish, the Belles cross-country team had one of its more solid seasons in its short history.
Saint Mary's finished tied for seventh in the MIAA and followed their pack running style that had been characteristic of the team all season.
"I actually consider last season to be the most successful in our short history," said head coach Dave Barstis. "We may have not had a great conference year, but we had the most runners we've every had and our top seven were all under 22 minutes."
The Belles cross-country team finished its season at the Regional Championships at Ohio Northern University in November. Saint Mary's finished 28th out of 35 teams. The top Belles finisher at the tournament was, followed by seniors Melissa Miller and Krista Hildebrand.
"The neat thing that we did this year which we haven't done in the past was to have our top five runners all come in together," junior co-captain Genevieve Yavello said. "The pack was really good this year."
In addition to Miller and Hildebrand, the team will lose Bridget Heffernan to graduation.
"We'll definitely have a hole to fill as far as our performance in meets," Yavello said. "We're losing two of our top runners, but, more importantly, we're losing three very strong leaders on our team."
Hildebrand and Miller finished 61 and 69 respectively at the MIAA championship meet.
Next season, the challenge will be to fill in the gap left by the seniors.
"Next year, we lose several people, and, well, its going to be interesting," Barstis said.
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 19, 2000
