NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The No. 8-ranked Carleton College women's cross country team won the 33-team NCAA North Regional Championships on Saturday, securing an automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA National Championships. All seven Knights captured All-Region honors, joining the 2018 squad as the only ones in program history to achieve this feat.
Running in unseasonably cool conditions, Carleton managed a final score of 41, charging them ahead of four other nationally-ranked teams in the field. No. 9 University of Wisconsin-La Crosse was the runner up with a final score of 64, edging No. 12 St. Olaf College, which took third with 66 points. No. 15 UW-Eau Claire was fourth (125 points), with UW-Stevens Points (217) holding off No. 35 College of Saint Bendict (226) for fifth place.
Clara Mayfield (Jr./Manhattan, Kan./Manhattan) was the individual runner up for the second consecutive year, this time clocking a time of 21:06.9.
Hannah Preisser (Fy./Chapel Hill, N.C./Carrboro) crossed the finish line in third place at 21:57.2.
The Knights saw two more runners finish in the top 10, as
Helen Cross (Jr./Nederland, Colo./Nederland) placed sixth at 22:26.2 and
Libby Rowland (So./Tulsa, Okla./Holland Hall) came in 10th with an end time of 22:31.9.
The final scorer for Carleton was
Sophie McManus (So./McCall, Idaho/McCall-Donnelly) as she covered the six-kilometer distance with a time of 22:46.9, which was good for 20th place.
Carleton's final two runners, also finished within the top 30 for the race, as
Phoebe Ward (Jr./Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./Dobbs Ferry) crossed the finish line at 22:49.5, good for 23rd place, and
Mary Blanchard (Jr./Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) came in 29th with a time of 22:59.6.
Mayfield and Preisser ranked 2-3 throughout the entire race. Cross steadily moved up from 19th to her final spot of sixth. Rowland ran inside the top 15 the whole time, while McManus and Ward stayed inside the top 25 throughout. Blanchard was 44tha the halfway point but moved up 15 spots over the final 3,000 meters.
The top 35 finishers garner All-Region recognition from the USTFCCCA. For Mayfield, this is her third All-Region award for cross country, while Cross, Rowland, Ward, and Blanchard each took home the honor for the second consecutive season.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will head to Lansing, Mich. for the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships next Saturday, Nov. 19.
