RedStorm women place 24th at NAIA Championship
Rio Grande Sports Information
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The University of Rio Grande women's cross country team spent much of the season as one of the programs in the NAIA Top 25 coaches' poll.
The RedStorm brought an end to their 2025 campaign doing the exact same thing.
Head coach Matt Paxton's squad ran to a 24th place finish in Friday morning's NAIA Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park.
The RedStorm tallied 590 points, finishing just ahead of Morningside (Iowa) and just behind Montana Tech among the 36 teams running in the event.
Taylor (Ind.) University won the championship with 90 points, while Milligan (Tenn.) University was second with 109 points and Dordt was third at 136 points.
"If you told me even three months ago that we could be Top 25 in the country, I would've said you were crazy," said Paxton. "With what we brought in and what we should've been building - building with a great group, but building nonetheless - we really overperformed all year. What a great group to work with."
Taylor's Jaynie Halterman won the individual crown, finishing the 6k course in 20:13 - a bit more than 30 seconds faster than runner-up Ellen-Mary Kearney of Milligan.
Rio Grande's top individual finish came from senior Amarissa Kerns (Lancaster, OH), who took 55th place in a time of 22:21.
"Amarissa went from finishing 225th here in 2022 to 132nd the following year, 83rd last year and now 55th this year," Paxton said. "I think we're definitely moving in the right direction in terms of the development of our athletes."
Joining Kerns in representing the RedStorm among the 333 runners was freshman Brandy Shular (Winchester, OH), who was 107th with a time of 22:57; freshman Marley Kreischer (Oak Hill, OH), who placed 193rd after crossing in 23:48; sophomore Laura Hamm (South Point, OH), who was 197th in a time of 23:50; senior Mackenzie McCarthy (Akron, OH), who took 218th place with a time of 24:02; senior Jayden Roach (Baltimore, OH), who was 240th with a mark of 24:19; and freshman Camryn Huck (Beverly, OH), who placed 255th in a time of 24:37.
The other River States Conference representative in the team competition was Shawnee State University, which finished in 27th place.