University Southern California Trojans
USC
Mustang Challenge
USC Places 5th At 5K Mustang Challenge
September 20, 2014 | Women's Cross Country
Freshman Jessica Lesser finished 26th to lead the USC women's cross country team to a fifth-place finish at the well-run Mustang Challenge hosted by the Master's College at Central Park in Santa Clarita, Calif. today (Sept. 20). Following an invocation and the anthem, the gun went off and nearly 170 runners took off on the circular course, up and down hills, with an announcer calling all of the action among the leaders.
The weather was nearly perfect as the sun burned through the cloud cover 15 minutes before the race, and the young USC squad featuring junior Natasha Strickland and four freshmen competing in their first collegiate race posted a very solid effort.
"Overall I think it was a good meet for us," said USC cross country coach David Freeman. "It was mostly the freshman that ran, so they got the opportunity to get the first-race jitters out of the way and understand the process of how to run a 5K, since most of the women race only three miles in high school. This is just the first step of the process as they are going to race a few more times this season, so hopefully the next time they run they learn from their experience today and improve upon what they experienced. It should help them improve and develop the cross country side of things. I'm truly proud of everybody who competed today. I think we had good effort, good focus and once again they are freshmen, so it is a learning process so I think we have a huge upside here at USC."
Lesser was the first Trojan to complete the course when she crossed the finish line at the 19:07.9 mark in 26th place. Not far behind her was fellow freshman Emma Kao whose strong time of 19:32.9 was good for 43rd.
The next USC runner was freshman Kimberly Groff who placed 75th with a time of 20:23.6. Strickland was 77th with a time of 20:30.7 and right behind her was freshman Mackensie Peace in 78th place with a time of 20:32.9.
Next week the majority of the runners which were held out of this meet will be competing at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. on Sept. 27.
Players Mentioned
