Knoche grabs top-50 finish at NAIA Championships
On Friday, some of the Fighting Bees ran at the NAIA Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. Working well with the cooler temps for Florida, along with closing the season with a strong finish, the women did not disappoint.
Three-time National qualifier Kaitlyn Knoche placed within the top 50, securing a spot in 44th place running a two-second PR of 22:04. This 44th-place finish was the second-highest finish in school history, behind Michaela Pieroni's 26th-place effort in 2020, and broke her own school record, which was 22:06 entering the Championships.
Knoche has shown great improvement over her three trips to Nationals. She was 234th in 24:48 as a freshman in 2023 and 104th in 22:49 as a sophomore last year. She is the first Bee to run at three straight NAIA Championships since Megan Grady completed a run of four straight in 2020.
The 2020 season was also the last time three SAU women competed at Nationals until this year.
Along with Knoche, Allison Hein and Alexa Minard made their debuts at the National meet. Hein placed 140th with a time of 23:15 and Minard placed 213th, running a time of 23:58.
To cheer them on, Coach Jansen, Lauren Johnson, and recent alumni of the Cross Country Bees - Noah Maske - were there along with some of the teammates' parents. The Bees worked really hard to get to where they are at, and now it is time to focus that momentum toward indoor and outdoor track seasons.