Salem, VA - Freshman Emma Flynn broke her second school record in eight days, earning a convincing individual victory on Friday and leading Bluefield State to a women's team championship at the Roanoke College Rooney Invitational.
It took Flynn just 20:29.6 to cover the 5-kilometer course at Green Hill Park in Salem, Va., besting the previous B-State 5k record of 22:50, set last fall by Flynn's teammate, Abbey Puckett. The mark also topped Flynn's career personal best performance, which she set in 2018 while a freshman at Cabell Midland High School in Ona, West Virginia.
"With the way she's been running, we knew Emma would have the chance to lead this race and we asked her to settle into the front of the pack from the starting gun," said B-State Head Track and Cross Country Coach Brooks Rexroat. "She handled that perfectly, and by the third mile, she was running pretty much alone at the front, cruising to a 21-second margin of victory. It was a great physical and tactical race for Emma and a great race for the entire squad."
Freshmen Kellie Williams (21:25.5; fourth place) and Nikki Walker (22:07.1; seventh place) and sophomore Puckett (22:30.4; eighth place) all topped the previous school-best mark. Freshmen Khrisalyn Kegler (23:56.2; 19th place) and Kayla Havens 24:21.6; 21st place) both finished in the top half of a field of 50 competitors to complete the B-State squad.
"Any time you can place four runners in the top ten at a race, you're setting yourself up for the win," Rexroat said. "Coach Rachael designed a fantastic race plan that suited this course and this field of competitors: surge, relax, build, and then fly over specific segments of the course. Our athletes executed it perfectly, and we came home with the win we'd asked our team to expect. We could not be happier with the way the ladies performed, all across the lineup."
B-State scored 39 points to handily top runner-up UVA-Wise (59 points). Hollins finished third in the meet, followed by host Roanoke and Shaw. WVU Tech and Mary Baldwin University entered runners, but did not field enough entrants to count in the team scoring table.
"UVA-Wise is a great benchmark opponent for us," Rexroat said. "They're a public institution in our geographic region that had an existing cross program and have recently announced the addition of track and field, so we're tied at the hip a bit and traveling the same path. I like where we're at as we measure up at this point in time, and I think that's a team we'll have some great races with in the future as both programs continue to rise."
The Big Blue will focus on training for the next couple of weeks before returning to action Sept. 23 at Virginia State.
"We wanted to get our season started with some shock treatment last week at Elon against primarily division one opponents, then get an opportunity to taste some success this week against some strong teams in our own divisional range," Rexroat said. "Now, we go into a period of recovery followed by some ramped-up training before we race again, and we're excited to see where the team goes from here."
