As the fall sports season begins and fall classes kick-off, the Women's Cross-Country season is following close behind. The Mountain East Conference (MEC) continued its preseason poll announcements with the release of the MEC Women's Cross Country preseason poll. The 10 MEC teams were ranked via a vote of the conference's head coaches and the Wheeling Women's Cross-Country team came in #8 in this year's poll. The Cardinals look to use their experience to climb the conference ladder and continue to improve this season.
In 2021, the Cardinals ran with what Head Coach Patrick Stanton called a "three-headed monster" in Sophia Tomana, Caroline Fodor, and Savanaugh Anderson. The trio of runners ran through three different meets before running in the annual MEC Championship event. They had two different runners finish in the top 25 of the race and had an All-Conference honoree in Savanaugh Anderson. They then ran in the 2021 NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship, where all three runners had a strong showing. They had one runner finish in the top 100 but were unable to send anyone to the NCAA National Championship. It was a strong finish to the season for the Cardinals and, with all three runners returning, they look to grow in 2022.
Leading the way is 2021 All-MEC Second Team honoree Savanaugh Anderson, who led the way at the 2021 conference championship. She posted her season best time of 26:13.56 at the event and earned her first-ever All-MEC honor of her career. Caroline Fodor enters her graduate season with the Cross Country team and returns as the only runner to place in the top 100 of the Regional Championship race. She took home 95th at the event with a time of 24:09.5 and an average mile of 6:37.4. Fodor had a strong season in Track & Field, running both the 400- and 800-meter races and looks to translate that success into the cross-country season.
Leading the way in this year's preseason poll was Charleston, who finished with 81 points and nine first place votes. Following behind them were Davis & Elkins (69 (1)) and Concord (68), rounding out the top three.
1. Charleston (9) - 81
2. Davis & Elkins (1) - 69
3. Concord - 68
4. West Liberty - 55
5. West Virginia Wesleyan - 50
6. Fairmont State - 36
7. Frostburg State - 31
8. Wheeling - 30
9. Glenville State - 18
10. Alderson Broaddus - 12
The Wheeling University Women's Cross Country team kicks off their season on Saturday, September 16th, when they travel to the Kutztown D2/D3 Challenge.
Original source can be found here.
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