Taylor Women Shine as the Class of the NAIA in Louisville Cross Country Classic  

LOUISVILLE – The Taylor (57-2) women's cross country team competed in the Louisville Cross Country Classic on Saturday morning and delivered a third-place finish among 41 teams from NCAA Division I, II, and eight ranked NAIA squads. 

While Taylor did not win the race as a team for the first time since the 2021 NAIA National Championships, they easily outpaced all seven ranked NAIA schools in the blue division race, with none scoring within 200 points of TU. Among the teams Taylor defeated were No. 4 Saint Francis (Ill.), No. 12 Leis Clark State, and No. 13 Cumberlands. 

In the Trojans' lone 5k race this season, Audrey Brinkruff had a terrific race, finishing fourth out of 383 runners with a time of 17:58.00. Noel VanderWall was the second member of the Taylor squad to finish and notched a tenth-place finish with a time of 18:19.6.

Ahna Neideck notched her best team finish of the season, coming in third for the Trojans with a time of 18:37.9. Finishing the scoring for TU were Mollie Gamble and Kaitlin Burden, who both finished inside the top 50 as well. 

Taylor had five runners in the silver division race, where Jessie McCoy logged a 28th-place finish with a time of 19:40.6. Her twin sister, Jackie McCoy, was the second Trojan to cross the finish line with a time of 20:36.0. 

The Trojans will have a couple of weeks off before traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, for the Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic on Saturday, October 21. It will be the final preparation before the Crossroads League Championships on Friday, November 3, for TU.