BOLIVAR, Mo. – Missouri State women's cross country placed fourth on Saturday morning at the Bearcat Invitational hosted by Southwest Baptist University.

The Bears raced 15 runners and scored 71 points to finish in the middle of a pack that featured seven schools including six from Missouri. SBU took first place as a team after securing the first and second top finishers 

The 5-kilometer race at the Bolivar Cross Country Course served as the season opener for MSU women's cross country and is the first of four regular-season meets they will run.

"Not a bad day for us," said head coach Jordan Fife. "There were a lot of positive takeaways even though those things didn't add up to the team result we wanted. We shifted our training by a couple weeks this year so I don't feel like we were as race ready for this one as we have been before but I was still pleased with the effort today."

Senior Edna Dar was the first runner to cross the finish line for the Bears and the third-place finisher at the invitational. Her time of 18:21.43 was over 10 seconds better than her best time in a 5K race last season. 

MSU's next runners to finish were sophomore Sierra Williams (18:42.97) and senior Shelby Palmer (18:44.54), who finished in sixth and seventh place, respectively. Williams' time was over 10 seconds better than her best at a 5K meet last season, while Palmer's was over 30 seconds faster. 

Finishing in 27th was senior Adyson Delany who led the next pack of Missouri State runners which featured two newcomers. Freshman Mary Margaret Harris, senior Ashley Rolewicz, and freshman Lillie Kaempfe finished in succession behind her in 28th-30th place for the Bears. 

"Our top 3: Edna, Sierra, and Shelby all had solid openers, and we have a great group right behind them that will continue to close the gap to give us a better team result," said Fife. "We feel like we're just getting started with this group and we're excited to see how quickly things come together over the next several weeks." 

The Bears will be back in action in two weeks on Saturday, Sept. 18 at the Southern Stampede. The 5-kilometer race is set to start at 8:30 a.m. at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course in Joplin, Mo. 

Missouri State Individual Finishers 
3. Edna Dar (18:21.43) 
6. Sierra Williams (18:42:97) 
7. Shelby Palmer (18:44.54) 
27. Adyson Delaney (19:34.05) 
28. Mary Margaret Harris (19:36.37) 
29. Ashley Rolewicz (19:37.60) 
30. Lillie Kaempfe (19:47.57) 
34. Kayla Voelker (20:03.03) 
37. Alex Hamre (20:05.22) 
38. Margo Nea (20:06.68) 
41. Natalie Clayton (20:16.59) 
46. Kylie Ghormley (20:39.08) 
49. Riley Lourens (20:43.06) 
60. Taylor Holtz (21:30.35) 
67. Taylor Giger (22:01.86) 

Team Scores 
1. SBU (40) 
2. Drury (68) 
3. Pittsburg (70) 
4. Missouri State (71) 
5. UCM (113) 
6. MSSU (161) 
7. S&T (189) 

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