EUGENE, Ore. - The Bushnell women's cross country alumni challenge race took place on Saturday, giving the Beacons their first chance at live racing competition ahead of the 2022 season. 

Six Beacon women took to the 3000-meter course with senior Rebecca Kuskie leading the way, winning the race in 11 minutes, 36.5 seconds. The Beacons won the race over the alumni, 22-35. 

Former All-American Brittany Peterson finished in second-place overall to lead the alumni, coming across in 12:06.0. She was joined on the team by former runners Heidi Gori, Bethany Dilla, and Isabell Webber, along with retired Hall of Fame Coach Heike McNeil and women's soccer alumna Joceline Aucoin, whose husband Jeremy also ran in the men's alumni race. 

Rounding out the top-five finishers were sophomore Hannah Scott (12:08.4), freshman Harmony Goodman (12:10.4), and Gori. 

"I felt pretty strong," said Scott. "It wasn't a really stressful race which was good and it was awesome to run with Harmony and Brittany. I think we are going to have a good team this year. We have some girls injured but we have really good team dynamics and a solid pack going."

Rounding out the Bushnell runners were Kennedy Larson in sixth (13:03.7), Aneykah McCall in eighth (13:05.2) and Kaitlin Cook in ninth (13:28.0). 

After the race, head coach Tom Boldon said, "Although we are really just training through our first few meets and wanted our runners to just have fun today, there were still some really solid performances. Becca demonstrated that she is in good shape and ready for the season. Hannah already appears to be ahead of last year and freshman Harmony Goodman is going to really help us this season. We are bringing along some of the others slowly and we can't wait to see what they do in future meets. We have three ladies that, once healthy, will help us too."

The Beacons start the 2022 season on September 1 as they travel to Lake Oswego for the Lewis & Clark Opener.