The Penn State women's cross country team matched its sixth place Spiked Shoe finish with another sixth-place showing at the William & Mary Invitational.
The Nittany Lions had to battle terrible conditions caused by rain and the Williamsburg heat and humidity, but they managed to hold their own against a number of highly ranked schools.
"The runners were asked to run in a tight pack," Lions' coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said.
"They stuck to our plan, and ran in small groups. That will continue to push us further as a team if we continue to do that."
Co-captain Susanne Heyer led Penn State with a 17th place finish in her first race of the year after sitting out the Spiked Shoe Invitational last weekend.
"I just tried to go out with Erin (Davis) and Stacie (Bouchard) in a pack towards the front, and we worked together to push through," Heyer said.
"It felt good to be back. I should have a lot better feel for racing after this race."
Stacie Bouchard improved drastically from her 48th place finish at the opening meet with a 21st place finish in Williamsburg.
"I can't really explain how I did so much better today," Bouchard said.
"Some races, like the one I had last week, you just don't feel good, and you just don't do well. In this race, I just felt better all week. We had a less intense training week, so that may have helped me, and I know it helped the team as a whole."
Seniors Erin Davis and Shelly Brand both followed up solid performances at the Spiked Shoe, finishing 29th and 37th respectively.
"Erin stayed with Stacie and Susanne almost the whole way," Alford Sullivan said.
"She ran very aggressively, but she just didn't have a good enough kick for the last 300 meters. Shelly also ran a very solid race."
Junior Kim DeNovellis passed 10 runners in the last 1000 meters to finish right behind Brand at 38th.
The Lions' top five runners finished within 30 seconds of each other, a very good sign that the squad is running as a team.
"We're doing a very good job of running together," said Heyer. "We just all have to continue to work together and move further up in races, which of course, will make us an extremely good team."
Co-captain Beth Buchheit was the seventh Penn State runner to cross the line in her first meet back after suffering a stress fracture in her leg.
"Beth ran a good race, but she had a little trouble closing the race out," Alford-Sullivan said.
"She still needs to work on her endurance a bit, but she didn't have any trouble with the leg at all.
"I'm glad we held the captains out the first week. It was good to bring them out in a 5K race where they've been running consistently throughout their careers."
Michigan, ranked No. 14 in the nation according to the FinishLynx/USWCCCA poll, finished first in the meet, garnering its second straight victory. North Carolina finished second followed by Navy and host school William & Mary. Georgetown, ranked fifth in the country, finished fifth in the race, followed by Penn State. According to Alford-Sullivan, the Lady Hoyas probably weren't using all of their runners for the race.
"We're happy to have been close to a school like Georgetown," Alford-Sullivan said. "But our runners know that they're not on their level right now, but that they'll get there. It was a real nice boost for us to beat St. Joseph's this week, because they slipped in ahead of us at Spiked Shoe.
"Our athletes know they have a tough road, and that they're just going to have to keep steeping up to the plate to get it done, and they know they have to be gritty all the way."
