Through three meets this season, the Blue Streaks women’s cross country team has been on the outside looking in— at least, outside of finishing in the top five as a team during their races thus far this season.

On Saturday, Sept. 7, the Blue and Gold finished sixth of 24 teams at the Knight Invite held at Calvin College. Last weekend at the All-Ohio Championships in Cedarville, Ohio, they finished seventh. JCU  came up just short of being recognized in the upper echelon at the conclusion of each race.

“We really have only had one race with our whole team, and that was at Calvin,” graduate assistatant Erin Kiley told the Carroll News. “We were still at the beginning of the season at the time, and we needed to work on closing the gap between our first and fifth runners.”

JCU has inched its way into the top 10 in each meet. The Knight Invite and All-Ohio Championships had 24 and 16 teams compete, respectively. JCU were sixth and seventh, respectively. 

The Blue Streaks have had one second-place finish this season, coming at the Sudeck Sunset Classic Stampede on Aug. 31. However, only three teams competed in that race.

“We have an incredible group of women this year,” said Kiley. “They have all worked so hard to contribute to the success of the team.” 

Heading into the Pre-Nationals Invitational, the women runners hope to have a strong showing in Louisville. 

“They know this meet is important, and they know they’ve put in the work to succeed,” she said. “It’s all about executing on race day at this point, and the team is excited to see what they can do.”

Only two meets are left before the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships. Those will be held in Twinsburg, Ohio, at Liberty Park.

“We’ve only had a couple of races at this point, though, so I expect more standout performances as the season continues.”