CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Senior Benisse Inamahoro set a new personal record in the 5k and the third fastest time in Auburn Montgomery women's cross country history on Friday at the 2018 Royals XC Challenge, running a time of 18:37 in the event to help pace the Warhawks to a 24th place finish out of 45 NCAA Division I and Division II institutions.
 
NOTES
• AUM recorded an average time of 19:55.51.
• Inamahoro's time of 18:37 obliterates her old PR of 19:41.40 that she set at last years FSU Invitational.
• The Warhawks finished ahead of NCAA Division I members USC Upstate and Gardner-Webb.
• NCAA Division I member Davidson and Morehead State finished first and second, respectively, with the host team #17 Queens University of Charlotte finishing fourth. Gulf South members #20 Lee University (Fifth), Alabama-Huntsville (Eighth), Union University (Ninth) and the University of Montevallo (15th) also posted top 25 performances at the race.
• A total of 45 teams and 411 runners competed in the event.
 
INDIVIDUAL FINISHES
• Inamahora ran a time of 18:37 to finish 54th, pacing the Warhawks for the fourth time this season.
• Gladys Rutto also ran a personal best, recording a mark of 19:34 to move into seventh place in AUM history in the 5k. Her previous best was 20:48.1. Rutto finished 136th in the event.
• Tanishya Jones ran a season best time of 19:58 to finish 181st.
• Isabella Gyori finished 201st and recorded a time of 20:19, which was a PR for the freshman. Her previous best was 20:45.39 at the 2018 Falcon Invitational.
• Danielle Riggs posted her best finish of the season, running a time of 21:07 to finish 252nd
• Victoria McCurry came in 254th with a time of 21:10, which is her fastest time this year.
• Olivia Guarino finished 296th with a time of 22:00, a personal best for the freshman, besting her old mark of 24:38.6.
• Savannah Karl finished 313th with a time of 22:24.
 
QUOTING THE COACH
"I couldn't tell you how excited I was for Benisse to run that time," said head coach Ryan Thompson. "Anybody that knows her story knows it hasn't been the smoothest transition for her, and with how hard she works and how much she's improved since she got here it was awesome to see her put up that number. Today was a day where the women were able to see that they could compete against a lot of teams in our conference and our region. A lot of them ran season bests and it shows the amount of hard work that they've been putting in."
 
UP NEXT
The Warhawks will next be in action on Saturday, Oct. 20, when they travel to Milledgeville, Ga., to take part in the Bobcat Invitational hosted by Georgia College.
 
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