The Bob Jones University Bruins women's cross country team fought hard for a runner-up finish at the NCCAA DII Women's Cross Country National Championship race in Joplin, Missouri.

"We are really excited with our girls finish," Head Coach Ken Roach said. "Claiming runner up with a tight finish grouping was an incredible race. We had four girls in the top 16."

As they were nearing the start of the race, the outside temperature jumped to nearly 80 degrees and that made a big difference in everyone's times today. The Bruins took pack mentality to heart and raced as a team for nearly the whole 5k race. The Bruins top five runners finished within 50 seconds of each other. It was freshman Lillian Strange that jumped out in front of the Bruins team and finished just outside the top 10 in 11th place overall with a time of 22:07. The next three runners came through the finish line in three consecutive seconds. Lauren Jones finished in 14th overall at 22:33, Kristen Dodds came next in 15th at 22:34, and Hannah Cohen in 16th at 22:35. Cora Gagne rounded out the top five runners for the Bruins coming in 20th place at 22:56. To close the efforts, Liz Farley and Sam Jones came in 24th and 28th place with times of 23:25 and 23:49.

The Bruins had a solid team score of 73 but could not overcome the fire power from Crown College. The Bruins used their pack mentality to be the nationals runner-up.

"They gave it everything they had and represented the Bruins wonderfully," Coach Roach said. "Very proud of this women's team."

Full results for the NCCAA DII Women's Cross Country National Championship can be found here.