On Friday, App State’s women’s cross country team took part in the NCAA Southeast Regional. This took place following their dominant performance in the Sun Belt Championship two weeks prior.

While the 34 teams that were invited to the meet were some of the best, the Mountaineers made it clear that they were competitors as they fought hard throughout the day and finished within the top half of the field.

The Black and Gold finished 16th with a team total of 425 points, which was their best regional finish since 2015.

There are always going to be individual standouts such as senior Lauren Johnston who finished 53rd overall during the 6K and first on the team with a total time of 21:50.7, but all five of the Mountaineers’ scorers had good days. Senior Jasmine Donohue crossed the finish line at 22:22.7, placing her at 88th overall.

Two more seniors, Emma Russum and Lana Farris, both broke the top 100 runners on the day. Their times of 22:27.5 and 22:35.4 put them at spots 93 and 100 for overall runners and third and fourth on the team.

The final of App State’s scoring five was true freshman Breanna Budzinski who finished off her incredible freshman season with yet another scoring finish. Budzinski finished 112th overall with a final 6K time of 22:47.5 and finished 26 places ahead of where she began.

Despite this, a trip to nationals is not in the cards, but that should not take away from the season that this team had. Between the best finish since 2015 and multiple runners given spots on All-Conference teams, it is time to start looking forward to what this team has in store for next year.