LOUISVILLE, Ky. -
The Oklahoma State women's cross country team finished 26th at the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday afternoon at the E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.
The Cowgirls earned 565 points and improved on their 30th-place finish from a year ago.
As has been the case all year, the Cowgirls were led by Monika Juodeskaite, who finished in 41st place with a season-best time of 20:18.2. Natalja Piliusina also ran a season-best of 20:23.2 to place 50th.
"We had two women run really well," said head coach Dave Smith. They did exactly what they needed to do and did what we told them to do. They performed how we expected. I think they're a little bit heartbroken because they just missed out on being All-Americans. Monika missed by 0.2 seconds. Natalja ran a really conservative race and finished like a freight train. I'm really happy with those two. "
Caileigh Glenn (21:30.01) finished 197th. Victoria Hanna (21:33.2), Kate Kujawa (21:36.4) and Taylor Light (22:38.1) rounded out the OSU runners by finishing in 205th, 212th and 250th place, respectively.
"We seem to keep repeating the same mistakes," said Smith. "We make it to the national championship and we don't run like we belong. We have to find a way to correct that or we're going to keep finishing 20th to 30th and that's not fun. "
2012 NCAA Cross Country Championships Nov. 17, 2012 | E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park | Louisville, Ky
