THREE RIVERS, Mich. – In her first meet of the season, senior captain Sarah Anderson led the Western Michigan cross country team on Friday night at the 2018 George Dales Invitational, claiming third overall. As a team, the Broncos fell short in their lone home meet of the season to the reigning Mid-American Conference Champion Eastern Michigan at Pine View Golf Club.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @WMU_TFXC

"We ran against a very good Eastern Michigan team that is the four-time defending conference champions," commented WMU associate head coach Taryn Sheehan. "However, I am pleased with some of the efforts I saw today. Last year we had a gap of four minutes from our one to five and this year we cut that in half."

The Eagles finished with a team score of 19 while the Brown & Gold ended the night with a total of 40. Anderson led the Broncos with a personal best 5K time of 17:39.8 while co-captain and senior teammate Maria McDaniel crossed the line at 18:07.7, claiming the sixth overall spot. EMU claimed four of the five spots in the top-five to take the event.

Junior Juliane Sormain, in her first meet of the season, also cracked the top-10, finishing with a time of 18:32.3 to take eighth. Freshmen Paisley Sipes and Chloe McEachern rounded out the Bronco top-five finishers as the two ended 11th and 12th, respectively. McEachern's time of 19:13.7 topped her career-best while Sipes finished with a 18:57.4 time in her first meet with the Brown & Gold.

Other finishers for Western Michigan include Haley Ritsema (19:25.4), Courtney Allen (19:57.5), Kailyn Mince (20:04.8), Olivia VandePol (20:38.8), Alexis Jenkins (21:32.2) and Lila Rode (21:51.2).

"Sarah ran a personal best today and Maria ran a really strong second half of the race," added Sheehan. "Juliane and Hayley showed some strong improvements from last cross country season as well. I was also really encouraged by some great competitive efforts from our new comers in Paisley and Chloe, sticking themselves into our top-five. There's still a lot of work to be done but I am really impressed with the hard work and mindset of our team and I am excited to see them keep building."

The Broncos are back in action next Friday, Sept. 14 in East Lansing at the Spartan Invitational.