The Webster University women's cross-country team finished sixth out of 16 teams at the Washington University Early Bird on September 4, at Forest Park.  The sixth place finish placed the Gorloks ahead of  three other St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams in the meet.  The men's team finished 16th out of 18 in its field.

Newcomers to the women's team, finishing in the top five for Webster were, Eroica Stackhouse (FR, Tipton HS, MO), Heather Heisse (FR, Buchanan HS, MO), Stephanie Ripperda (FR, Mt. Olive HS, IL), and Stephanie Schmoele (SO, Fox HS, STL).   2009 SLIAC All-Conference performer Jane McKibben (SO, Lindbergh HS, STL) also scored for the Gorloks.

St ackhouse led the women with a time of 16:45.3, finishing 22nd out of 100 runners.  On the men's side, Blake Harris (SO, O'Fallon HS, IL) led the team with a time of 21:48.8, finishing 74th out of 124 runners.

Coach Dusty Lopez said, "Today's races had a little bit of everything for us.  It was a classic 
first race of the season--we didn't know what to expect and there were some suprises, both good and bad.  

The women looked great overall and despite having three freshmen in the lineup, they took a big step toward becoming a solid team.  The men weren't quite able to stay in a pack like we had expected, but over we showed improvement in our time over last year in the Early Bird.

For both teams, there is a lot of season left and both teams will keep working hard, now a little bit more award of our strengths and weaknessed as racers."

Webster teams scores:

Webster University Women 
22 24 36 42 59 = 183
Eroica Stackhouse (22), Heather Heisse (24), Jane McKibben (36), Stephanie Ripperda (42),
Stephanie Schmoele (59)

Webster University Men
74 81 84 87 103 = 429
Blake Harris (74), Alex Schoenstein (81), Tony Morales (84), Daniel Henkey (87), Derrick
McKee (103) Scott Barker (112), David Koppelmann (116).