SPOKANE, Wa. – The UAH women's cross country team along with Blaise Binns and Jose Ortega gave solid performances at the NCAA Division II National Championships in Spokane, Wa., Saturday morning.
 
The Lady Chargers finished in 27th with 705 points in the 6k event while Grand Valley State took home 1st place for the second-straight season with 54 points while Adams State (91), Western State (194), Alaska Anchorage (214) and Augustana S.D. (236) rounded out the top five.
 
Mary's Jennifer Agnew went on to capture the individual National Championship with a time of 20:50.7
 
A significant improvement from last season, Vicky Winslow finished 90 spots better than she did at last year's Nationals. She came in 62nd out of 244 runners with a time of 22:15.2 to lead UAH. Her final time is also more than 30 seconds faster than last season's time (22:47.4).
 
Sophomore Kasey Spence established a new career-best with a time of 23:07.9 in the 6k to place 153rd while fellow teammate Kailey Williams (191st) clocked in with a time of 23:39.0.
 
Spence was not the only runner to set a personal best as junior Michelle Kruse topped her previous best by over 20 seconds, clocking in at 23:40.2 to place 192.
 
Kayla Luechtefeld (210: 24:03.7), Kelsey Crawford (234; 25:12.4) and Amber Powell (235; 24:14.4) all posted solid times as well.
 
For the men, Jose Ortega ran a solid time of 33:24.2 to place 189th out of 246 runners in the 10k. Junior Blaise Binns finished Nationals with a time of 34:17.3 to come in 221st.
 
Adams State took home the team championship with 54 points as Grand Valley State finished second with 104 points. Augustana S.D. (122), Western State (137) and Colorado Mines (187) rounded out the top five.
 
Adams State's Tabor Stevens finished with a time of 29:50.1 to capture the individual National Title.
 
While the 2013 campaign may have drawn to a close, both the men and women had stellar seasons as the both teams combined for 10 individual championships and seven team titles including the GSC Championships.
 
Already looking ahead to next year, both  Binns and  Winslow will return next season while several other key contributors such like Ortega and Kruse will return as well to defend the GSC Championship in the process of having another tremendous season.