KAHUKU, Hawai'i – Graduate student Julianna Mendez led Dominican women's cross country to a seventh-place finish at the PacWest Women's Cross Country Championships at Kahuku Golf Course despite suffering an injury in last week's meet.

Academy of Art won the team championship with 42 points to edge out Biola who finished with 43 points. The Penguins paced themselves well to record their best-ever finish in the championship race, finishing with 212 points to beat out Hawai'i Pacific who finished eighth with 220 points in the field of 11 teams.

Mendez started out slowly over her first 2,000 meters but quickly jumped up 21 spots into 19th at the 4,000-meter mark. She continued her march up the individual board moving up two more spots to cross the finish line in 17th with a time of 23:43.0 to claim a spot on the All-PacWest Third Team.

Senior Emma Digman maintained a consistent pace throughout the 6k as she finished 47th with a time of 26:34.5. Sophomore Isabel Ferris also made moves up the leaderboard in the second and third splits moving up a total of eight spots while outkicking Kristilyn Hetherington of Azusa Pacific and Jenna Bernath of Point Loma Nazarene University down the stretch to finish 52nd with a time of 27:00.8. 

Senior Alexa Sullivan also made a move down the finish line passing up Kristen Weber of Holy Names to finish 61st with a time of 27:42.8, while freshman Mary Jo Gallegos finished 66th with a time of 28:23.0 to round out the team.