Sarah Inglis placed second at the University of Washington’s Sundodger Invitational in Seattle.
Inglis was one of four Trinity Western University Spartans to crack the top 11 at the race which was held in Seattle on Saturday (Sept. 20).
The field contained four NCAA Division 1 schools.
Inglis finished the six-kilometre race in 20:30 while Alison Jackson just missed the podium, placing fourth with a time of 20:44.
Fiona Benson (21:21) was ninth and Regan Yee (21:24) was 11th.
As a team, the Spartans were second behind 14th-ranked Washington.
"We put our girls in the invitational section and I think the results proved that we were in the right competition," said TWU coach Laurier Primeau.
"We were just two points behind Washington with our top four girls scoring. The difference is a little bit of depth, but we're a program that is growing and maturing and we really believe that we're going to get there."
Three other Spartans also ran the race: Meg Harradine (23:18), Hannah Gaensler (24:03) and Katelynn Ramage (24:49).
The top five TWU runners also ran the event in 2013 and all of them bettered their times this around, including Inglis who won the 2013 race in a time that was 42 seconds slower than what she ran on Saturday.
On the men’s side, Joel De Schiffart was the top Spartan finisher placing eighth, finishing the eight-kilometre race in 25:07. The TWU men were third as a team.
Blair Johnston (25:45), Mihai Prajea (26:10), Caleb de Jong (26:12), Adam Marshall (26:27), James Lam (26:49), Tyler de Jong (27:02) and Jordan Gin (28:36) also crossed the finish line.
“Our team is exactly who we thought they were,” Primeau said.
“But I think it was good for our guys to learn a lot about racing. We were wearing our clunky trainers while a lot of other teams were wearing racing flats and spikes and we were missing two of our top five athletes (Declan White and Levi Neufeld).
"Top to bottom, we had really good performances. It was nice to see Joel as our lead runner, but we also had some really good results from our freshmen.”