This Saturday, Saint Mary's will host its annual Alumnae Race. Following last weekend's fourth place finish at the Wabash Hokum Karem race, the Belles will look to have some fun and get a good run in as they welcome back former Belles runners.
"It should be a great time though and I'm hoping to see continued solid work out of the ladies," Belles coach Jacqueline Bauters said.
In contrast with last week's four-mile relays, this weekend, the Saint Mary's runners will compete in the season's first 5-kilometer race (5K). Last year, senior Jessica Biek starred in these races, even posting the schools fifth-best 5K time. Last weekend, freshman Brittany Beeler partnered with Biek to continue her streak of strong finishes by coming in fifth place overall and first for the Belles with a time of 23:51.45.
"Brittany Beeler has been an excellent training companion for Biek," Bauters said. "I think their partnering up will take them and the team places this fall."
Along with Beeler, four other freshmen made their debuts at the Wabash Hokum Karen race. Among the standouts debuting was KaitlynAlessi, who partnered with senior Sarah Thompson to finish with a time of 25:52.85, good for third for Saint Mary's and 15th overall. Not to be outdone, all of the freshmen had strong debuts last weekend and have been working hard to improve on their times for this weekend's race.
"We will have to see how things shake out in another week, but I'm hoping there isn't much of a gap [between our other runners]," Bauters said. "Time will tell."
With so many newcomers, the Belles have looked to some of their returning runners to step up. Last weekend, such a performance came from the pairing of junior SameeChittenden and sophomore Allie Danhof, who had the team's second-best time at 24:10.75, and finished in seventh place for the Belles.
The Belles will return to action with their alumnae this Saturday at 9 a.m.
Contact Cole Schietinger at cschieti@nd.edu
