Smurla Named Landmark Conference Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week
TOWSON, Md. --- Moravian University senior Tara Smurla has been named as the Landmark Conference Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week for her performance last week.
TOWSON, Md. --- Moravian University senior Tara Smurla has been named as the Landmark Conference Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week for her performance last week.
Smurla helped the Greyhounds to a fifth-place finish at the Stockton Osprey open as she ran a time of 23:12.89 on the 6,000-meter course to lead the Hounds with an eighth-place individual finish out of 158 runners. Smurla earned her second Landmark Conference honor of the season.
"To be honest, the race could have been appreciably better," stated Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann. "Tara took charge of the race around 2k and had about a 50m lead through the 3-mile mark. She was purposefully staying within her limits to make sure she had enough for a finishing surge if needed, and despite this, she became really ill multiple times over the last 1200m to the point that she had to stop and walk. Despite this, and losing well over a minute of time, beyond her control, she still placed in the top 10. We know she had a sub 22:00 race in her had the illness not crept up, so it was actually an encouraging outcome despite the inconvenient setbacks. Her workouts continue to look better than ever, so we know she's on pace for where she wants her season to go."
The Hounds are slated to return to action on Friday, October 3 in the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University.
