by Joe Sanderson | Sep 13, 2014 | Sports
During Saturday’s meet, there was a 30 degrees difference in temperature from the Bisons’ last race at Vaughn’s Gap, the Belmont Opener. Two weeks ago, the men’s and women’s cross country teams were running out of clothing items to remove in the sweltering heat. Two weeks later at the Vanderbilt Classic, they were struggling to find enough to put on. At around 60 degrees, the brisk, overcast morning lengthened their warm-up some, but overall the temperature was welcomed by the participating athletes and fans alike. With nearly double the attendance from the Belmont Opener, Vaughn’s Gap was electric. “We’re thrilled with our women’s performance today. We finished 4th overall without our top three women out there, so, great performances,” head coach Bill Taylor said. Despite withholding Sally Larson, Danielle Walker and Madi Talbert from the competition the Lady Bisons showed that they still have a lot to bring to the table. The trio of runers will compete in Boston in two weeks and coach Taylor is hoping the girls will make a statement. “Maybe not visible to everybody because of not running our top three, but we’re really happy and we feel like it’s setting us up awesomely for the end of the season,” Taylor said. Lipscomb sophomore Barbara Ball finished with a time of 17:43.54. Ball, who is the current Atlantic Sun Runner of the Week, stepped up for the Lady Bisons in her teammates’ absence. “Today was great. The weather was so much better than our last race here,” Ball said. “We added a few girls which definitely helped out the pack. Our solid pack was able...
