This weekend at the New England Championship, the University of Rhode Island women’s cross country team placed sixth out of 25 teams.

Fourth-year Lily Saul stood out among the Rams in the five-kilometer race as she finished with a time of 17:46.90, finishing 10th out of 281 racers.

“I try to finish top 15 always, so I just wanted to put myself out in front,” Saul said.

Saul was one of the first five runners to pass the one-mile mark in the five-kilometer, continuing the success she has had this season, which has included winning Atlantic 10 Conference Performer of the Week on Sept. 9.

Other standout performers for the Rams were fourth-year Linsey Arends, third-year Hailey LaRosa and first-year Jordan Hadfield.

“I think that we had a solid performance,” URI Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick said. “We had some illness, so if we were 100%, we could have placed higher.”

Fifth-year Sofia Piccone did not participate in this race due to an illness. She is one of the Rams’ top-five runners, according to Feit-Melnick.

“We are just preparing for the end of the season,” Feit-Melnick said. “We keep continuing to hopefully stay healthy, eat, sleep, hydrate and train hard.”

The Rams aren’t done quite yet this season. On Nov. 1, they will be competing in the Atlantic 10 Championship, which they haven’t won since 2021.

“It’s a continuing preparation,” Feit-Melnick said. “Summer is key, and it’s a very short time to train. You have an eight-week season, so we’ll just continue to do a few key workouts, and keeping everyone healthy is what’s most important.”

The Rams look to keep this progress going at the A-10 Championship in a few weeks in what will be their most important meet of the season to that point.

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