Bates senior Kallie Nixon's excellence as a distance and middle-distance runner has been well-established in track and field -- she won All-America honors in the indoor distance medley relay in 2012, and qualified for the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships in both the 1,500 meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase -- but, due in large part to being away last cross country season for study abroad, she had never made a comparable impact in cross country. Until this season, it appears.
Nixon (Medfield, Mass.) recorded her second outstanding race in a row on Saturday, underscoring again her central role in the team's continued ascendance. The Bobcats entered the 50th annual Roy Griak Invitational, hosted by the University of Minnesota, ranked 24th in Division III, but after finishing second out of 29 teams, and bettering four other nationally ranked squads, Bates is now rated 14th in the country, the highest ranking in program history.
Sophomore Hannah Zeltner again crossed the finish line first for Bates, covering the 6-kilometer course in 23.17.2 for ninth place among 412 racers. Nixon, meanwhile, bolstered Bates' cause at 15th overall in 23:39.2, followed by senior Gabrielle Naranja (Fort Kent, Maine) in 22nd at 24:00.8, junior Elena Jay (West Hartford, Conn.) in 23rd at 24:01.3 and sophomore Isabelle Unger (Charlotte, Vt.) in 34th at 24:19.5 to complete the team's scoring. Zeltner and Nixon took home wool knit hats for their top-20 individual performances and Bates turned heads as a team to contend with, despite the absence of three key runners on the 2012 squad that took 19th place at the NCAA Championships (Alicia Fannon, Lindsay Cullen and Amanda Solch).
