Point Park Women's Cross Country takes 24th place in Louisville leading all RSC schools

LOUSVILLE, Ky. -- Point Park University women's cross country led all River States Conference schools competing at the Live in Lou Classic on Saturday, Sept. 30 from Louisville, Ky. The Pioneers placed 24th of 50 schools in the Silver Race to finish ahead of the four other RSC schools in that draw. 

The Pioneers had 601 points as a team to register the Top 25 finish in the top half of the field. It was a big meet with many schools from all across the country and several NAIA teams competing. Point Park finished ahead of RSC teams IU Kokomo (30th), Rio Grande (32nd), Midway (39th) and Oakland City (50th). 

The Pioneers put forth an average time of 21 minutes, 7 seconds in the 5,000-meter race. There was a split of 2:29 from the Pioneers' 1-5 runners with all five of those scorers coming in under 22:18. 

Allison Plassio had a time of 19:50 for 37th place out of 401 runners. It was her second 5K under 20:00 in a row with her PR of 19:32 coming two weeks ago at RMU. Hot temperatures about 85 degrees had the imes about 20-30 seconds slower than the same meet last year. Plassio was running 10th place through the first 2.1 K and was still in the Top 20 with about 1,000 meters to go. 

Jana Schmid ran a time of 20:22 for Point Park's next runner and a placement of 63rd. Then came a trio of personal records for the Pioneers. Freshmen Olivia Hare (21:21) and Karen Rios (22:18) both had the best of the three races they've run at Point Park so far. In between, Sophia Lee-Hauser (21:44) was fourth on the team continuing her strong season running a career-best in the third meet of her junior year. 

Amanda Lisotto (25:34) and new addition Kayleigh Nagy (25:58) were in Point Park's top seven. The Pioneers were missing usual top-five performer Kiyara Sawyers and also Corinne Lee-Hauser. 

The Pioneers will race locally for their next meet on Saturday, Oct. 7 at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational. The meet is held in Schenley Park.