Fort Lewis College senior women’s cross country runner Hannah Hartwell continues to validate FloTrack ranking her as Division II’s top female cross country runner.
Hartwell won the Lewis Crossover Invitational in Romeoville, Illinois, by less than a hundredth of a second on Oct. 11 as the postseason meets loom. Hartwell will look to build on last year’s fifth-place finish at the Division II national championships.
The Skyhawk star finished the 6-kilometer women’s race in 20 minutes and 45.1 seconds. Walsh’s Claire Rethman was second in 20:45.1 and Paige Mullen from Pittsburg State was third in 21:09.1. It was Hartwell’s second win of the season.
FLC women’s cross country head coach Gracen Key said the beginning of the Lewis Crossover cross country course was mayhem. A massive field of runners had to run up a steep hill for 10-15 seconds early in the meet, which condensed the field, according to Key. The runners then had a dip and a chicane for the runners to deal with through the thick grass.
Hartwell and Rethman were together for the entire race, with Hartwell always leading, but Rethman within five feet behind. Late in the race, Hartwell looked to have dropped Rethman and was building a gap. However, Rethman didn’t give up in the final stretch.
“Hannah did gap her a decent bit in that last 600 (meters), but it was nuts,” Key said. “This girl (Rethman) just turned on the jets within the last 100 meters or 50 meters. She just started zooming … I walked up to her after the race and I said, ‘Did you win?’ She said, ‘I don't know.’”
“Thank God she knew how to lean a little bit because the lean is really what got her the win. Because, from different angles, you could see that girl (Rethman) had so much momentum.”
Behind Hartwell for FLC was senior Alliyah Molina in 28th in 22:09.2. Freshman Carysa Marquez was 50th in 22:29.8, senior Althea Griffith finished 140th in 23:27.2 and senior Marisol Castilleja finished 178th in 23:51.83 to round out the scoring runners for the Skyhawks.
Key was happy to see how Marquez fought to get inside the top 50 as a freshman in a very competitive field. Key was happy to see Castilleja return from injury and put forth a good effort.
FLC finished 10th as a team with 372 points. Chico State was first with 100 points, followed by Lewis in second with 140 points and Biola in third with 180 points.
“We're not particularly pleased with it,” Key said about the team’s finishing position. “There were some solid individual standouts … there were just a couple of people that we were expecting to be up a little further. Even the back part of our group didn't perform to what we were expecting. I do believe they did the best they could for that specific day, but it was not anywhere near what we were expecting.”
The Skyhawks move on to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Championships on Oct. 25 in Colorado Springs at Monument Valley Park.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
