The SMU Women’s Cross Country team finished second to an upstart Baylor squad Saturday in the 2013 Bear Twilight Invitational at Baylor University.

The Mustangs posted an average of 13:56.76 – just five seconds off of the bears leading time, and good enough for second place.

The strong showing in the meet is evidence of a transfer of one of the fastest girls on the team: Ashlee Powers to UCLA.

“She was definitely our number one girl last season,” said sophomore Shanoah Souza, who placed eleventh after coming off of a bout last semester with achilles tendonitis. “We may have lost one runner, but all of the runners we did recruit this year and all of the runners that we did put back over the summer regained from that one loss.”

Baylor definitely surprised the Mustangs with their speed in the last race, according to Souza.

Although they did lose to the bears, the Mustangs placed well ahead of regional rivals Texas and Texas A&M; and beat the Horned Frogs’ squad by more than ten minutes.

The ladies’ next competition is Sept. 14, when the stampeding ponies travel to Arlington for the University of Texas-Arlington Invitational.