The St. Teresa’s Academy cross country team ran in their first meet of the season on Saturday at Longview Community College. In the two mile race, they placed third out of the four participating teams. St. Teresa’s ran against Lee’s Summit West High School, Raymore-Peculiar High School, and Lee’s Summit North High School.

“This is a highly competitive meet, with some of the best girls’ teams in the state,” wrote Karen Moran, head coach of the cross country team. “Our girls ran smart races, and have learned so much in just four short weeks.”

Senior captain Natalie Kistler was the first runner for St. Teresa’s, finishing in 11th place with a time of 12:47. Winning the meet was Miranda Dick from Raymore-Peculiar High School with a time of 11:58.

Two exchange students from Germany, Lotte Lind and Laurien Krueck were not able to run in the meet, but both “ran the course beforehand and did very well,” wrote Moran. “Lotte ran the 5^th fastest time of the day.”

Top Five STA runners:

Senior Natalie Kistler: 11th place- 12:47

Freshman Abbi Hennessy: 13th place- 12:54

Junior Maddie Douglass: 14th place- 12:55

Sophomore Delaney Hupke: 17th palce- 12:58

Junior Rose Crowe: 22nd place-13:24

“We had a beautiful day for our first meet of the season,” wrote Moran. “The coaches were proud of the girls’ efforts today. It is a long season but it was great to finally get their first race under their belt.”