Women Take DIII Little State Title, Men Runner-Up
The Trinity women won the DIII Little State Championship meet with 17 points, their best finish since winning the meet with 16 points in 2008, and getting a perfect score (15 points) in 2006. This marks the 2nd year in a row, and the 5th year of the last 6, that the Tigers have taken the little state title.
Sophomore standout Rosemary Steup finished first overall (22:47.75) in the 6k for the second year in a row, making it the seventh straight year a Trinity woman has taken the individual crown. Larissa Wilkinson took the title in 2004, while All-Americans Emily Daum (neé Loeffler) and Caitlin Masse won from 2006 to 2009. The meet was cancelled in 2005 due to Hurricane Rita.
The Tiger women took 1st through 4th individually (which hasn't happened since 2008), led by Steup and sophomore Maddie Murphy (22:50.06) close behind in 2nd. First year Michelle Oberndorf's time of 22:52.51 puts her 7th in the record books, while sophomore Vanessa Moreno also had a personal best, finishing in 23:24.61. First year Jessica Pagano (23:49.69) rounded out the top five with a 7th place finish. Sophomores Jackie Newell and Junior Joy Lindig both placed in the top 10 with 8th and 10th place showings, placing the entire top 7 for the Tigers in the first ten spots of the race.
On the men's side, Trinity finished a close 2nd behind UT-Tyler. The Patriots finished with 35 points, while the Tigers were 3 points back with 38 points.
The junior duo Sal Perdomo and Francisco Escobedo took the 2nd and 3rd individual spots with personal best times of 26:03.55 and 26:10.27, respectively. Junior Mark Greene placed 8th with a time of 27:13.63 making this his first top 10 individual showing at Little State. Sophomore Gerardo Hernandez finished 11th with a personal best time of 27:45.22, with first year Connor Amoruso rounding out the top 5 with a time of 28:25.38.
Next up for the Tigers is the Incarnate Word Invitational in San Antonio on Saturday, October 9th.
