GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.--Bolstered by a pair of top-5 showings, the Lawrence Tech women's cross country team proved its mettle on Saturday at the 15th annual NAIA Great Lakes Challenge, hosted by Aquinas College at Riverside Park. The Blue Devils scored 140 points for fourth place out of 18 schools in an event that featured 11 nationally-ranked top-25 programs.

Lawrence Tech finished ahead the likes of No. 10 Cumberlands (Ky.), No. 13 Carroll (Mont.), No. 15 St. Francis (Ill.) and #16 Rocky Mountain (Mont.).

Senior Jacqueline Albo and junior Hanna Assenmacher led the way for LTU with a second and third place finish, respectively, out of 185 competitors. Albo, who was the highest Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference finisher, navigated the 5-kilometer course in 19 minutes and 11.7 seconds. For her part, Assenmacher--the reigning WHAC Women's Runner of the Week--was right behind Albo with a clocking of 19:28.2.

"Despite muddy conditions that were worse than last week at Muskegon, we ran extremely well and it was a total team effort today for our ladies with most of them either running a season's best or a personal record," LTU head coach Eric Green said. "Our total time of 141:59 is one of the best ever for us as a team. We are peaking at the right time with the conference meet coming up in two weeks."

Kirsten Geary of Georgetown (Ky.) was the medalist with a winning time of 18:50.1, while Mount Vernon Nazarene won the team title with 107 points.

Lawrence Tech will be idle next weekend to train for the WHAC Championships on Nov. 3 in Grand Rapids.