SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Southern Wesleyan women's cross country got off to a solid start with a ninth-place finish in the season opening meet in the 31st Annual Eye Opener hosted by USC Upstate.
The Warriors were right in the middle of the nine NCAA II schools, finishing ahead of Newberry, Converse, Erskine and Coker and behind Young Harris, Limestone, King and North Georgia. SWU was also right in the middle of the pack of 18 total teams in the race.
Freshman Alana Grant posted the best time for the Warriors at 20:45.37, good enough to finish in 38th out of 157 total runners. That time was 20 seconds faster than Sierra Zemanick's team-best time from a year ago. Zemanick finished in 45th this year with a time of 21:25.36 as she comes back from knee injuries.
Davidson's Sarah Sears won the race with a time of 18:59.66 as the Wildcats took the top three spots and five of the top eight en route to a dominating first-place team finish. Davidson's 21 points were better than SCAD Savannah's 64. North Georgia followed with 108 then King (Tenn.) with 138 and USC Upstate with 176 to round out the top five.
SWU's Michelle Last finished just two spot behind Zemanick in 47th with a time of 21:29.39. Fellow freshman Shy'Keya Wimberly placed 80th with a time of 23:17.74 and Emily Harper was 85th, coming in at 23:44.86 to round out the scorers. Brandi Jackson (96th, 25:02.43) and Ashley Rhodes (101st, 26:19.21) also ran for the Warriors.
Southern Wesleyan finished ninth in the same race last year. The Warriors will head to Montreat College next weekend to run in the Hyder-McMahill Invitational on Sept. 13, a race they placed 5th in a year ago.
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