WATERFORD, Conn. - The No. 19-ranked St. Olaf College women's cross country team finished sixth of 37 teams in a field that included 11 nationally-ranked teams at the Connecticut College Invitational on Saturday at Harkness Memorial State Park.
 
Led by an eighth-place performance by junior Lauren Walda, St. Olaf compiled 217 points to tie with No. 22-ranked Tufts University but won the tiebreaker after the Oles' top-three finishers all placed ahead of the Jumbos'. St. Olaf finished ahead of two teams ranked ahead of the Oles in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national poll in No. 17-ranked Middlebury College and No. 18-ranked Connecticut College.
 
The five teams that finished ahead of the Oles were No. 1-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology, No. 7-ranked New York University, No. 16-ranked Williams College, No. 30-ranked Washington & Lee University, and No. 5-ranked Amherst College. Eight of St. Olaf's 10 runners to compete in the race established six-kilometer personal-best times.
 
Walda established a new six-kilometer PR by over 25 seconds by placing eighth (21:34.4), while senior Alison Bode knocked over 20 seconds off her previous top six-kilometer time with a 28th-place performance (21:55.5). Junior Ella Landis was a third Ole in the top 50 in 44th (22:14.8) with an over-25-second PR.
 
Fellow junior Grace Moeller made it four PRs out of St. Olaf's top four with her 55th-place result (22:25.1), while senior Sophie Abernethy was the Oles' fifth scorer in 88th place (22:51.6). Junior Isabel Wyatt, senior Jules Fromm, first year Abi Lindquist, and junior Molly Kate McCloskey also turned in personal-best six-kilometer times at the meet.
 
While St. Olaf's top contingent of runners was in action on the East Coast, the rest of the team placed seventh out of 20 teams at the Tori Neubauer Invitational at Maple Grove Venues in West Salem, Wis., led by a 26th-place finish by first year Louisa Lamarre.
 
The Oles will host the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships on their home course on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 11 a.m.