After a successful season last year, the women’s cross country team is looking to build another strong campaign in 2008. The Saints bring back a strong team with five of their top seven runners from a year ago returning this season. Leading the way for the Saints is senior Amanda Strouse.

The team kicked off the 2008 season on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Calvin College Cross Country Knight Invite. Against some fierce competition, including Calvin, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and DII power Grand Valley State University, the Saints came away with a fifth place overall team finish.

Individual performances were highlighted by Strouse, who finished fourth overall with a time of 18:02.

Also putting in strong performances for Aquinas were sophomores Katy Cramer (19:24), Alicia Boynton (19:38) and Sam Rinkus (19:38), all of whom placed in the top 30.

It seems like their hard work is paying off as the women’s team continues to perform at a very high level while keeping their focus on their goal.

“We want to be better than we were last year,” said sophomore Audrey Shireman, “We’ve already improved a lot in our first meet (the Knight Invite). But, our main goal is to run well at Nationals.”

Aquinas continues to race against some of the best competition around. After competing against some local powers at the Knight Invite, the Saints traveled to Chicago, on Sept. 27, to participate in one of the biggest meets in the entire country – the 36th Annual Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational, hosted by Loyola University Chicago.

Over 61 colleges and universities were represented at the meet and the Saints ran side by side with some big-name schools, including multiple NCAA DI universities (Alabama, Northwestern, Marshall, Wisconsin, De Paul and Missouri among others all competed). Other schools such as Saginaw Valley and Ferris State also competed.

Aquinas held their own in Chicago placing ninth overall as a team, beating out multiple NCAA D1 schools. Leading the way once again for the Saints was Strouse who again finished fourth overall individually with a time of 18:01.

Boynton came in at 19:32, Rinkus at 19:39 and Cramer finished with a time of 19:40 providing depth for the Saints once again. Also finishing strong for Aquinas was Rachel Fechik with a time of 19:55.

It’s safe to say that the women’s cross country team is not taking the easy road to Nationals as they compete against some very high quality competition, which comes as no surprise. The Saints hard work and dedication seems to be paying off.

The Saints will travel to Kenosha, Wisc. on Oct. 11 to race in the Lucian Rosa Parkside Invitational.