Harrison, Jube lead Cougars to 4th place finish

SOUTH BEND, Indiana – Behind two top-25 finishes from Andrea Nelson Harrison and Carrie Jube, BYU women’s cross country placed fourth at the Notre Dame Invitational Friday afternoon.

A flat course coupled with ideal weather conditions at race time provided for fast finishing times along the 5K course.

“It was a good race for us,” BYU women’s head coach Patrick Shane said. “We beat a lot of really good teams. “Carrie and Andrea both had very solid races.”

Harrison was the top finisher for the Cougars placing 10th with a time of 16:29.4. Jube finished second for BYU and 21st overall with a time of 16:46.2.

“I felt really good about my race,” Jube said. “I wished that I had started a little faster. I began towards the back of the race and I kind of got caught behind a lot of people and I kept getting pushed to the back. I wasn’t very aggressive at getting out in front of the big pack of girls.”

Jube stayed patient after starting slow and fought her way back to the pack and ended up passing many athletes who started much faster. Her 21st place finish was less than one second from placing in the top 20.

“I felt like I had a ton of energy the whole time. I was constantly passing girls the whole race working my way up trying to get as close to Andrea as I could. I did what I could. I felt like I ran a solid race today.”

Jube’s efforts were important in ensuring the Cougars reached their goal of placing in the top four.

“I think we did well,” Jube said. “We met our goal of what we wanted to do. We were hoping to get between second and fourth place and we got fourth. So I think we were happy with it.”

Jennica Redd came in third for BYU behind Jube and Harrison with a time of 16:54.2. Makenna Smith followed Redd finishing in 17:02.1.

Shane was particularly impressed with true freshman Alyssa Steed, who rounded out the scoring for the Cougars finishing the 5K course in 17:11.1.

“If I were to highlight one person who stepped up it would be freshman Alyssa Steed,” Shane said.

Steed finished in 57th place overall, less than one minute behind the first place finisher and less than 45 seconds behind BYU’s top finisher.

“I felt pretty good today,” Steed said. “The race went out fast but I was able to keep my pace. Since the season started I’ve been getting better every week.”

The Cougars will race again on Oct. 17 at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin. The race will be the final invitational before the West Coast Conference Championships on Nov. 1.

Complete race results can be found here.