NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Two freshmen were among the three from the Iona College women’s cross country team to earn All-Region today as the Gaels earned sixth place at the NCAA Northeast Regional Meet in Buffalo.
Egle Morenaite, the 2017 MAAC Women’s Individual Champion, led the effort for Iona with a seventh place showing behind a 21:55.8 showing. Morenaite opened the first mile with a 5:45.1 time to cross in at 16th before moving up to fifth place following the 3k mark at 10:441. She finished the final half of the race in 11:11.7 to claim the All-Region nod in seventh place.
Classmate Sophie Murphy moved up from 31st at the mile mark to 19th at the 3k mark with a time of 10:54.8. She closed out the final 3k in 11:23.7 to move up another five spots and earn her 14th showing at 22:18.5. Junior Julia Kearley rounded out the All-Region trio in 22nd place, seven spots up from the midway point, with a time of 22:26.8. Daniele Martino and Rachel Garn were the final two individuals to score for the Gaels as Martino crossed in at 61st with a 23:01.9 clocking while Garn finished close behind at 23:02.4 for 63rd.
Providence and Dartmouth earned the automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Championship Meet next weekend in Louisville, KY as the top two finishing teams in the region. Providence accumulated a meet-low 84 points while Dartmouth totaled 115 points, two points lower than Syracuse in third place. Senior Elinor Purrier of New Hampshire was the meet’s top individual finisher 6k showing of 21:20.8.
The announcement of the NCAA Championship Meet field will be released on NCAA.com on Saturday, November 11 at 3:00 pm. A total of 31 teams compete as a team at the Championships, with 18 bid being automatic with the top two teams in each region while 13 other teams will be selected at-large. Following the team selections, 38 additional individuals are selected to compete that include the top-four finishers outside of the top-two teams from each region. Two additional student-athletes will be selected from the remainder of the national poll as at-large individuals.