SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - In their first meet of the season, the Mavericks placed 11th out of 27 teams at the Augustana Twilight Friday night.
Maya Nachtigal led Omaha placing 45th with a time of 19:29.19. This marked the first meet for the program since 2019 due to the pandemic.
"Maya ran a very solid race to kickoff the season," said head coach
Cliff Cisar. "She has been working very hard, and I know has high expectations of herself this year. She did a lot right throughout the race with some things to improve on to help get her where she wants to go."
Madeline Yardley and
Danielle Howard finished next for the Mavericks at 99th and 100th place respectively. Yardley finished with a time of 20:17.58 and Howard with a time of 20:17.74.
Emily Robles was not to far behind finishing 113th with a time of 20:29.31.
Chelsey Espinosa (20:34.15) and
Joanna Topham (20:34.80) finished right behind Robles at 116th and 117th.
Also competing for Omaha was
Paige Blackford (133rd) and
Zoe Christenson (203rd).
"The excitement to be back on the cross country course after a Covid season hiatus was definitely thrilling. However, that same excitement can get you in a lot of trouble in the first portion of a race like this one. As a team we got out very hard, but as that adrenaline started to wear off we got a bit stagnant during the middle of the race which cost us some valuable places.
"I am proud how each person could identify things they could improve and talked about setting goals in order to do such that. I look forward to getting back to training this week and to see our progress at Woody Greeno on Sept.18."
The Mavericks return to action on Saturday, Sept. 18 as Nebraska hosts the Woody Greeno Invite in Lincoln.
