TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --- All-american performances from Katherine Bakken and Ana Mendoza Pineda and five of seven runners authoring their personal-best times of the season enabled the NAIA No. 7-ranked University of St. Francis women's cross country team to bring home its fourth trophy in as many years from the NAIA National Championships by placing fourth overall on Friday.

USF has now finished fourth twice (2019, 2022), second once (last year) and as national champions two seasons ago over the past four years.

The Fighting Saints totaled 203 points, just two points shy of placing third, which went to College of Idaho with 201 points.  Capturing its first-ever title was Taylor University (Ind.), which had all seven of its runners finish no lower than 32nd place in totaling 50 points.  Defending champion Milligan University (Tenn.) was a distant second with 177 points.

The meet was made up of 36 teams comprising 326 runners with William Carey University's Lina May capturing the individual championship with her time of 16:50.9 on the 5K course at Apalachee Regional Park.

Bakken claimed her third NAIA All-American honor in as many years with her best-ever finish at the championships.  She placed 11th in a time of 17:40.9 

Mendoza Pineda joined her on the all-american stand by placing 15th with her 17:44.7.  Each of the top 40 runners earn all-american status.



Bailey Wilk was USF's No. 3 runner and used her time of 18:24.1 to place 52nd overall.  The rest of St. Francis' scoring came from Allison Ramsey (72nd / 18:39.5) and Olivia Bukowski (84th / 18:43.6).     

Notes: USF's appearance at the NAIA Championships was its 11th in a row … Bakken's top finish for the Saints was her first of the year.  She also took off nearly a minute from her previous-best mark of the campaign, bettering her time by 53 seconds … Three other Saints also lowered their previous top times by more than 21 seconds: Mendoza Pineda (21.5 seconds), Alexia Bibakis, who ran a 19:08 (26.08) and Bukowski (27.3) … Wilk had her best time by the slimmest of margins, 0.5 seconds … Adding the fourth-place effort to USF's fifth-place finish on the men's side, the St. Francis cross country program was able to bring home a trophy for the third-best combined team score at the meet behind Milligan and The Master's University (Calif.).



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