Kristin Siegle, a Buena graduate, continued her outstanding senior year of XC at Rider Saturday with a sixth-place finish in the Henry Mercer Monmouth Invitational.
Siegle, a native of Estelle Manor, covered the hilly 5,000-meter Holmdel layout in 18:36, finishing behind only four runners from Princeton and one from Marist.
That 18:36 is a PR for Siegle on any course — and it came on one of the most challenging 5,000-meter courses you’ll find.
For the sake of comparison, Siegle’s fastest time in high school over the same Holmdel County Park was 20:37 at the 2013 state Group 2 meet.
Her fastest 5,000 before this month was a 19:14 at the 2014 Cape-Atlantic Meet over a flat course at Millville, where she finished behind two all-world runners, Devon Grisbaum of Ocean City and Alyssa Aldridge of Mainland.
So that’s more than a two-minute improvement since high school.
Siegle was also Rider’s No. 1 runner in their opener two weeks ago in the Siena Invite in Colonie, N.Y., where she ran 18:41 for fourth place over 5,000 meters at The Crossing of Colonie course at Siena. That 18:41 was her previous 5,000 PR.
At Buena, Siegle was second at the Cape-Atlantic Championships in the 1,600 in 5:15.98 and was a multiple sectional medalist.
