DE PERE, Wis. – The Bethany Lutheran women's cross country team began their season at the Tom Barry Invite hosted by St. Norbert Saturday. The Vikings finished in 10^th place with 290 points, with Concordia (Wis.) winning the event.

"Really happy with our season opener this year," said Head Coach Michael Dunn. "The vibe with our men's and women's program is definitely going well. The competition was really strong today, but both teams started this season off better than the previous."

Kayla Tobin got her season off to a great start, finishing the 5k in 21:50.4, which was over 40 seconds quicker than her time at last year's 5k. Jordan Merwin also had a solid start with a 23:02.4, while Chloe Kuhlman ran a 23:26.1. Emmeline Metz and Naomi Anderson rounded out the Bethany scoring time with times of 24:45.4 and 25:00.2, respectively. Hannah Rethemeyer finished her race just behind Anderson at 25:14.5, while Angela Zaccaria ran a 25:33.9. Megan McCue rounded out the times with a 29:02.5

"Kayla started her year off nearly a minute better than last year at the same meet," said Dunn. "Nearly the entire women's crew ran significantly better here this year, and that is a huge start to a long season. We still have a long way to go, but we have set ourselves up to build forward in a positive and strong way."

Bethany will next compete at MSU-Moorhead on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.