Lady Bison Sixth at NAIA Meet

Fields covered the drenched five-kilometer course in 17:34.40, 31 seconds behind Maria Bernard of repeat team champion British Columbia.

OBU improved on last year's seventh-place finish and bettered its team time from the NAIA Preview on the same course earlier this season.

"I can live with sixth place," said OBU Coach Matt Kennedy. "In this sport, everyone judges you on one race. I had the privilege of being with this team all season and I know their heart and how hard they worked. I am proud of the effort they put into this."

Fields' finish earns a third All-America honor in cross country – just the second Lady Bison to make All-America three times in the sport. She joins four-time All-American Brandy Bratton.

Whitney Warfield was second for OBU, finishing 56th overall at 19:02 with Katelyn Fritz right behind in 59th at 19:03. Miranda Dent was 69th at 19:09 and Kati Whelan had a scoring time of 19:39 in 132nd place overall.

Also for the Lady Bison, Abby Hoover was 147th at 19:43 and Lauren Wood was 232nd at 20:23. The women's race included 336 championship-level runners.

The Lady Bison finished with 250 points, missing a fourth-place finish by 16 points.

British Columbia scored 43.

OBU's freshman pair of runners both finished in the top 100. Walker Clampitt was 84th at 26:18 and Tyler Helt was 89th at 26:19 on the eight-kilometer course.