Currier Passes Runner in Final 800 Meters for Third Place

Gophers Place Eighth with Combined Total of 215 Points

NEWVILLE, Pa. — Goucher's Katherine Currier (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaGuardia) was in the lead one-third of the way through the 6,000-meter race at today's Dickinson Invitational. She wound up finishing in third place with her time of 23:22.5.

Her time is the seventh-fastest for a race of that distance in the history of Goucher's women's cross country program.

Once Currier opened up a 30-meter cushion 2,000 meters into the race, only three runners managed to pass her. One that did was Kristina Kronauer from Bryn Mawr, who emerged as the winner as she crossed the finish line in 22:54.4. Another was Muhlenberg's Samatha Mayden, who was the runner-up (23:13.1).

Currier dropped at one point to fourth place, but she managed to catch and pass Swarthmore's Jenna Cody over the final 800 meters. Currier's time was two seconds faster than Cody's.

The 6,000-meter race was the longer of the two contested today as the meet is operated under the unique long course/short course format under which each school's top three runners in both races figure into the team scoring. The next two Goucher runners to finish after Currier were Katelynn Zidanic (York, Pa./Central York) in 49th place (25:31.0) and Sarah Pardus (Stratham, N.H./Exeter) in 79th (26:11.1).

The shorter course was a distance of 4,000 meters and Zoe Malkin (Watchung, N.J./Watchung Hills Regional) was the first Goucher runner to complete the race, doing so in 35th place. Only seven runners in program history have posted a faster time in a 4K than her 17:10.4.

Goucher's next two runners to complete the shorter course were Haley Augustson (Athens, W.Va./PikeView) in 59th place (18:24.5) and Hadley Couraud (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) in 60th (18:26.8).

The Gophers scored 98 points on the long course and 117 on the short course for a combined total of 215, good for eighth place.