By Tom Robinson
For Sunday Dispatch
Madison Mimnaugh helped the University of Tampa women’s cross country team to the Sunshine State Conference championship at Lynn University Oct. 26.
Mimnaugh was 16th overall, completing the five-runner team score that Tampa used to beat out Saint Leo, 34-45, at the top of the standings in the nine-team event.
Tampa has won 15 Sunshine State Conference titles, exactly half of those in the conference’s history.
Mimnaugh played a part in the most recent one, supporting four teammates who had finished in the top 10. Her time of 23:55.2 for the 6-kilometer (3.73-mile) course placed the Pittston Area graduate in the top one-fifth of the 92-runner field.
It was the second straight strong finish for Mimnaugh, a senior, who transferred to Tampa after competing in three sports at Bloomsburg University earlier in her career.
Mimnaugh was also part of the team score Oct. 11 when Tampa concluded the regular season by finishing third out of 24 teams, and best among the NCAA Division II entries, during the Florida State University Invitational in Tallahassee.
In a field of 228 runners, many of them from Division I schools, Minmaugh finished 62nd. She ran the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) course in 19:19.9.
Tampa was scheduled to compete in the NCAA South Regional Saturday with hopes of making it to the NCAA Division II Championships in Sacramento, Calif. Nov. 23.
Mimnaugh was a part-time starter on the Bloomsburg University soccer team as a freshman before switching to cross country for the next two fall seasons. She also ran track and field and continued that sport at Tampa last spring after transferring.
At Pittston Area, Mimnaugh played soccer and ran middle distance on the track and field team where she set several school records and a District 2 record in the 400-meter dash.
