Knoxville, TN - The No. 3 Patriots women's cross country team placed runner-up out of 18 teams at the NAIA Appalachian Challenge at Sequoyah Park on Friday morning. UC tallied 78 points in a highly competitive field that featured 187 runners from multiple nationally ranked NAIA teams in the 5K race. 

Lea Kunstmann led the Patriots once again, posting a third-place finish with a time of 17:23.71, marking the fastest time by a Patriot this season and the second fastest time in program history in the 5K. 

Brynn Poulson followed with a 14th-place finish at 18:13.63, while Patrober Kosgei crossed the line in 16th (18:22.88) to keep Cumberlands within striking distance of the leaders.  

The Patriots' depth shined as Elisa Helferich (25th, 18:38.68) and Alex Cundiff (27th, 18:43.49) rounded out UC's scoring five, giving the team a tight spread of just 1:19 among their scorers. Tigist Bergman (32nd, 18:52.08) and Clayra Darnell (45th, 19:16.31) added key support to close out the top seven. 

The meet included several nationally ranked programs, with No. 2 Milligan capturing the team title, No. 14 SCAD Savannah coming in third, No. 25 Rio Grande placing fourth, and No. 21 Montreat finishing fifth. 

The Patriots will return to competition at the Mid-South Conference Championships on Friday, November 7 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. 

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