MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University cross country team finished fourth overall at the 2023 Big 12 Cross Country Championship on Saturday afternoon in Ames, Iowa. The conference championship was hosted by Iowa State, at the Iowa State Cross Country Course.

The Mountaineers secured the fourth-place spot in the women’s 6k with 163 points. BYU claimed the conference championship with 35 points, Oklahoma State finished second with 39 points and Iowa State claimed third with 70 points.

“I am very proud of this group. We felt if we came here and ran well, we could finish fourth, and I am quite happy with doing so,” WVU coach Sean Cleary said. “Though we lost five NCAA distance qualifiers from last year’s team, we were able to keep ourselves beyond relevant in today’s race.”

Redshirt senior Sarah Tait finished 25^th overall, with a time of 20:37.2, finishing first for the Mountaineers. Redshirt senior Katherine Dowie trailed behind Tait with a time of 20:42 flat and a 28th-place finish. Freshman Lexi Lamb notched a career best, running for a 21:03.0 time.

Freshman Audrey Hall finished 48th, for a 21:22.5 finish. Redshirt senior Jeanne Reix Charat ran for a 21:33.3 time and finished 54th overall.

Other scoring runners for West Virginia were Mikenna Vanderheyden, Tatiana Moura, Zara Zervos and Abbey Yuhasz.

West Virginia returns to competition on Friday, Nov. 10, for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course. The race is slated for 12 p.m. ET.