FRANKLIN, Ind. - The Kalamazoo College women's cross country team finished fifth out of 21 teams at the Sodexo Grizzly Invitational hosted by Franklin College on Saturday.

Kalamazoo had six runners in the top 50, led by Paige Anderson's second-place finish time of 22:10.

Ava King finished 16th with a time of 23:25. Nora O'Leary came in 29th at 24:05. Alison Hankins finished 35th at 24:20. Haleigh Nower came in 47th at 24:44. Maya Alkema finished 50th at 24:47.

"The plan was to run a conservative first half of the race and come home strong," said Head Coach Kyle Morrison. "We had Paige up front finishing second overall and then first years Ava King and Nora O'Leary closed quite fast. Seniors Alison Hankins and Haleigh Nower rounded out a strong top five. Our 6-8 of Maya Alkema, newcomer Allison Mayer and Allie Nutt pushed other teams fourth and fifth runners back. We beat Centre who's currently ranked sixth in the Great Lakes Region, so we're in a very good spot. We have more work to do in the next month but this was a fantastic opener and this team has great depth. Shoutout to Pauline Hawkes who ran a 12-second lifetime best today."

Kalamazoo returns to action next Friday, Sept. 13, at the Calvin/GRCC Knight Raider Meet in Grand Rapids.