BOLIVAR, Mo.— The Drury women's cross country team finished as the Great Lakes Valley Conference runner-up at the league championship held at the Bolivar Municipal Golf Course in Bolivar, Missouri on Saturday.
 
Eighth-ranked Lewis won the GLVC championship with 28 points, while the Panthers were second with 67 points. Southwest Baptist came in third with 97 points.
 
Drury placed two runners in the top five and three in the top 10 as Luz Olivera was third overall in the field of 123 runners. The senior from Peru posted a time of 21:48.47 in the six-kilometer race. Bradley Weimer, last year's individual champion, ran a faster time this year by nine seconds and was fifth (21:51.32). Zoe Van Dijk, just one week removed from competing in the NCAA triathlon regional, was seventh with a time of 22:04.80. Ashley Sexton was 27^th (23:12.12) and Alexis Workman was 34^th (23:41.16).
 
"I thought we ran really well," said Drury head coach Lee Wood. "With our 1-2-3 punch, we knew we were capable of scoring three runners in the top 10 and that's exactly what we did. We haven't had all three of them run their best race at the same time until today, so I was really pleased with how they finished."
 
Hannah Smrcka from Lewis won the individual championship with a time of 21:13.23. Emma Puetz from Missouri S&T was second (21:45.56).
 
"I'm really proud of myself and my team," said Olivera. "As a team, we were working hard to get ready for this race and it was good to see my teammates place."
 
Drury matched their best finish in program history. Their other second-place finish came in 2020 when, due to COVID-19, the GLVC split the championship meet into two heats. The Panthers second-place finish that year came in the faster heat of the two races.
 
The Panthers will compete again in the NCAA-II Midwest Regional on Nov. 4 in Evansville, Ind.
 
 
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