Emma Flynn's fourth school-record performance in five regular season contests powered Bluefield State's women's cross country team to a seventh-place team finish Friday at the Roanoke College Invitational. Flynn finished twenty-second individual—tenth among non-Division I runners—and covered the six-kilometer course in 23:59.8. That mark improved on the previous school-best mark set in 2016 by Marta Briales. Flynn now holds the school record at four-, five-, and six-kilometer distances.
Freshman Kellie Williams joined Flynn among the top 50 performers in the highly competitive meet. Her finish of 24:58.2 now stands and the third fastest mark in B-State program history.
NCAA Division I opponent Radford earned a perfect score to win the meet—capturing the top eight places overall—followed by a trio of highly ranked NCAA Div. III opponents in Southern Virginia, Washington & Lee, and Bob Jones.
The team's first performance at the 6K distance was better than expected, according to the B-State coaching staff.
Rachael Rexroat, B-State's assistant track and field and cross country coach and lead endurance events coach used formulas ahead of the race to project 6K times based on the team's 5K performances and training sessions to date. On the course, the team shattered those expectations.
"Math and science can project a good deal about what you're capable of running at a given time, but this sport is all about heart and our women showed it in this competition," Rexroat said. "We're very proud of the way they stepped up to the line with grit and determination and showed a really good performance against a field of strong programs with great tradition in the sport."
Freshman Nikki Walker (62nd place) and sophomore Abbey Puckett (66th place) continued to work well together as the team's third and fourth runners, while Khrisalyn Kegler and Kayla Havens finished in the fifth and sixth slots for the Big Blue's team tally.
Head Coach Brooks Rexroat said this team's growth was particularly evident in the final regular-season outing.
"With the way we've performed this year, it's easy to forget we've got a team of a sophomore and five freshmen—most of whom would be getting a developmental year or wouldn't be counted on as a lead scorer for most of the teams we're racing against," Rexroat said. "Friday's race was the most locked-in and focused we've been—as the year closes out, we're learning a lot about how to compete at a high level, how to move within the race, and how to close the run out with purpose. They ran with an extra level of aggressiveness and ferocity in this race. Emma went out a little too fast, but adjusted in the second mile and ran an absolutely fantastic race. Kellie just runs smooth and solid. Abbey and Nikki got in there and battled, and Khrisalyn dropped her projection by almost a minute—we've been waiting for her breakthrough race and I think this was it. Kayla fought every step, too, and this was just a great race all around. We were picking off runners in the final mile, rolling past people at the finish—it was everything we could ask for, and then we sit back and look at just how young we are compared to the senior heavy teams finishing just ahead of us, and we know how bright the future is."
The Big Blue now return to training until early November, when they'll compete for a USCAA Small College National Title on Nov. 11 at Bells Mills Park in Chesapeake, Virginia.
