COMPLETE RESULTS
PHOTO GALLERY

The High Point University women's cross country team finished fourth at the 2009 Big South Cross Country Championship on Saturday at Shady Oaks Kennel in Winston-Salem, N.C. HPU was led by junior Emily Webb (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester), who finished eighth with a time of 19:12 to earn All-Conference honors. Liberty won the team championship with 47 points.

"Emily Webb had a really good race," said head coach Mike Esposito. "We needed to have a little bit better of a collective effort. The seniors, Joya and Geneva certainly did their part. Monica Delizo had an exceptional race. Kelsey Fraser had some unusual circumstances and ran very well."

"We were 10 points out of third, 20 out of second," said Esposito. "We thought we could be up in the top two, so we were a little bit disappointed but overall the day went very well."

Senior Geneva Winterink (Oshawa, Ontario/Paul Dwyer Catholic) finished just outside of the top 10, crossing the line in 19:21 to finish 11th. Following close behind Winterink was senior Joya Canfield (Berlin, Md./Stephen Decatur), who finished 15th with a time of 19:32. Sophomore Kelsey Fraser (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport), finished in 24th with a time of 19:55 and junior Brittany Killough (Bowling Green, Va./JJ Kelly) finished 29th with a time of 20:15 to round out the HPU scorers.

Other Panther finishers included junior Monica Delizo (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery), who finished 30th with a time of 20:17, freshman Dani Paul (Auburn, Maine/Edward Little), who finished 32nd with a time of 20:22, freshman Kelsey Paine (Daniels, W.Va./Shady Spring), who finished 42nd with a time of 20:52 and freshman Kelsey Hunt (Bedford, N.H./Manchester West), who finished 45th with a time of 21:02

Liberty posted 47 points, followed by VMI (66 points) and Coastal Carolina (76). In fourth-place was High Point with 86 points and Winthrop closed the top five 117 points. In sixth was UNC Asheville with 148 points and in seventh was Radford with 172 points. Gardner-Webb (225) and Charleston Southern (262) rounded out the list.

VMI's Hannah Granger finished first in the women's 6K to take home Runner of the Year honors.

Granger was followed by Liberty's Dacia Bushman (18:32) and Jennifer Klugh (18:37) who finished second and third respectively. Jenna Moye of VMI finished fourth with a time of 18:39. Radford's Lori Crotts crossed the line in fifth with a time of 18:45. Coastal Carolina took sixth and seventh when Shelby Donahue finished in 19:06 and was followed closely by teammate Janel Reeves who finished in 19:09. High Point's Emily Webb finished in 19:12 claiming eighth. Brooke Spencer of Winthrop finished in ninth with a time of 19:16 while UNC Asheville's Melanie Kulesz rounded out the All-Conference runners, finishing with a time of 19:18.

VMI's Paul Spangler was named Coach of the Year, while Jenna Moye earned Freshman of the Year honors. Winthrop's Carly Moss was named the Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Canfield was named to the Big South All-Academic team.

"The meet itself was really well run," said Esposito. "The High Point University staff came through, the venue was unbelievable. This was the best one I've been to. I know I'm biased but from a spectator standpoint we had more people out here than we have seen at a cross country meet. It was a great meet."

HPU's next race will be the NCAA Southeast Regional on Nov. 14 at Louisville.