BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—Senior Audrey Comastri (Indianapolis, Indiana) raced to a fourth-place finish out of 52 competitors to lead University of Southern Indiana Women’s Cross Country at the 2024 season-opening Sam Bell Invitational.
Comastri finished the four-kilometer race with a time of 14 minutes, 23.6 seconds and an average mile pace of 5:47. She finished less than three seconds behind the third-place finisher and a little more than 20 seconds behind the University of Cincinnati’s Claire Curtsinger, who won the race in 14:02.7.
As a team, the Screaming Eagles were fourth of four teams with 86 points. Indiana State University was first with a team score of 33 points, while Cincinnati and host Indiana University were second and third, respectively, with 48 and 58 points.
Aiding the Eagles’ efforts was freshman Hadessah Austin (Attica, Indiana), who was 15th with a time of 14:45.4, while sophomore Zoe Seward (Rochesster, Indiana) was 16th with a time of 14:45.8.
Senior Katie Winkler (Santa Claus, Indiana) and freshman Addison Applegate (Corydon, Indiana) ran to respective finishes of 30th and 31st to round out USI’s top five scorers, while senior Emma Thompson (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) and sophomore Sara Livingston (Jasper, Indiana) wrapped up the Eagles’ top seven with respective finishes of 33rd and 34th.
USI returns to action Saturday, September 14 when it competes at the UT Martin XC OVC Preview in Union, Tennessee. The women’s 6k will starts at 9 a.m., while the men’s 8k follows at 10 a.m.