Lady Braves Finish 11th at GACC Invitational

CARY – Junior Catherine Shoemaker and sophomore teammate Brianne Talob excelled at the Great American Cross Country Festival on Friday evening as they each took home personal bests from their 5K race at Wake Med Soccer Park in Cary.

Pacing the Lady Braves was freshmen Annette Sem who ran a 20:38 to place 63rd in the event.

Rounding out the top three for the UNCP women’s team were Shoemaker and Talob who recorded personal bests of the season. Shoemaker ran 21:28 to break her previous record of 20:58 set on September 11 at the East Carolina Invitational to finish 77th overall. Talob followed close on Shoemaker’s tail – finishing 79th overall with 21:43, beating her previous time of 21:50 also set at the East Carolina Invitational.

The UNCP women placed 11th as a team out of a 14 combined Division I and Division II schools with 326 points.  The Black and Gold finished 25 points ahead of North Carolina State’s cross country club, but did not have enough to catch tenth place Winston-Salem who registered just 315 points. The University of Maryland was led by Kristin Reed and Julie Fricke to take home first place with just 23 points.

UNCP RESULTS
- Annette Sem (63rd, 20:38)
- Catherine Shoemaker (77th, 21:28)
- Brianne Talob (79th, 21:43)
- Blair Long (85th, 22:12)
- Woodi Jones (97th, 23:35)
- Jessica McDowell (110th, 25:11)