HOUSTON – MIA RIVERA set a new program record in the 3,000-meter run and St. Edward's women's track & field set several personal records at the FasTrak College Challenge. 

"Shoutout to Mia for her performance in the 3K. She ran an exceptional race from start to finish," St. Edward's Head Track & Field Coach Steven Cary says. "Mia's starting to take on the mindset of a distance runner and bringing the power and speed she's gained from mid-distance training over the years. The cool thing is she has more to give, and that'll come as she gains more experience." 

Rivera paced a large contingent of Hilltoppers in the 3,000, finishing second at 10:03.22. DELANEY LONG finished just outside the top 10 at No. 11, clocking a 10:56.01. SYDNEY SMITH and JORDAN SANDERS placed No. 13 and 14 at 10:59.98 and 11:01.28, with Sanders recording a new personal best. VICTORIA HOYT (16th, 11:10.98), MYLA CASTILLO (20th, personal best 11:22.68), SAMMY SALAZAR (21st, 11:25.00), and MAGGIE RITTMEYER (28th, personal best 11:39.77) rounded out the lineup. 

JULIANA MERLO placed No. 11 with a time of 5:10.49 in the mile. MEGAN FERRELL was the next Hilltopper to cross the finish line, followed immediately by TAYLOR LATZA. The duo finished No. 33 and 34 at 6:00.95 and 6:05.02, respectively. Ferrell set a personal best by 25 seconds. ADRIANA RODRIGUEZ placed No. 37 at 6:10.87. 

AUDREY WISTAIN qualified for the 60-meter hurdles finals with a sixth-place finish in the preliminaries at 9.52. First-years Myosia Virgin and Mary-Kate Havens clocked top-25 times in the preliminaries, finishing 19th and 23rd at 9.62 and 9.80. Wistain clocked a better time in the 60-meter hurdle finals at 9.49 for a seventh-place finish. 

Wistain also competed in the 60-meter sprint, running a personal-best 8.16 to finish No. 24. JASMINE COOKE finished ten spots later at 8.30, then Havens in 39th at 8.35. 
 HAILEY RODRIGUEZ ran a sub-minute 400, finishing sixth at 59.26. KARLY WEYAND was the next Hilltopper to finish in 22nd at 1:02.49. YAMILA CARTWRIGHT (28th, 1:03.15) and TORI PONCE (36th, 1:05.85) also competed. 
 
Merlo pulled double-duty distance running and turned in a ninth-place finish in the 800, running 2:21.07. BRYN PETERS placed 25th at 2:32.81. 

Rodriguez and Weyand finished a fraction of a second apart in the 200 at 22nd and 23rd place. Rodriguez clocked a 26.70 and Weyand 26.71. Cooke placed 35th at 27.26, Cartwright in 40th at 27.59, Wistain in 41st at 27.65, Havens in 45th at 28.08, Virgin in 54th at 28.97, and Ponce in 58th at 29.40. 

"I'm proud of the way the teams competed this weekend. I thought we fought hard out there and did some good things within our heats and even had several folks win theirs," Cary says. "With the weather, it's been challenging to string together consistent bouts of training lately, so we definitely need to get more fit."

St. Edward's will return to Houston on Feb. 8, to compete in another FasTrak Collegiate Challenge in the University of Houston Athletics/Alumni Center.