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Koalas Take 5th at AAC Conference Meet
Posted: Nov 11, 2019

Koalas Take 5th at AAC Conference Meet

The Koalas competed in the 2019 Appalachian Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday, November 9th at Boling Park in Canton, GA. This is the 6th time, starting in 2014, that a complete team was fielded in the AAC Cross Country Championships by Columbia College. The championship was hosted by Reinhardt University for the 3rd straight year at Boling Park. The weather was ideal with virtually no wind and 46 degree temperatures at the 10:30am start time.

 The Koalas ran in a strong field which include the #1 nationally ranked SCAD Atlanta and the #6 nationally ranked Milligan College. The Koalas finished 5th out of 15 women's teams with a combined team time of 1:46:29 (21:17 average). This was the largest field of women's teams at a championship in AAC cross country history.

 Freshman Esther Ekundayo led the Koalas in 34th place, and finished with a time of 20:18, just 2 seconds off of her personal best. Esther also was named to the AAC Women's All-Freshman team. Not too far behind was freshman Makayla Hollified who placed 39th with a time of 20:39, which is only 11 seconds off her personal best.

 The Koala's 3rd and 4th finishers were freshman Valeria Bogdanova and sophomore Hannah Mishkoff, who ran 21:33 and 21:53, respectively, for 49th and 56th place.

 Rounding out the Koala's 5 scoring runners was freshman Gabrielle Huggins who set a new lifetime personal best with a time of 22:04, good for 60th place.

 The remainder of the Columbia College team all ran very strong. Freshman Victoria Heiser-Whatley ran her collegiate best time of 24:19 to be the Koala's 6th runner, and finished 81st overall. Just behind her were sophomore Shelby Winn and freshman Jessica Heiser-Whatley, who finished back-to back in 86th and 87th place, both recording new collegiate best times of 24:44 and 25:03 respectively. Junior Brittany Robbins rounded out the team with her best race of the season with a finish time of 28:37.

 The Koalas look to carry this momentum into the Indoor Track & Field season which will officially kickoff on December 6th in Salem, VA at Roanoke College's Bast Cregger Invitational.