By Joyce Novacek

Writer

The women’s cross country team placed seventh at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships Saturday in University Park, Pa. Sarah Moniz ’11 and Stephanie Fulmer ’12 led the Orange and the Blue, both recording times of 21:41 in the six-kilometer event and finishing 35th and 36th overall, respectively.

Alysha Hooper ’12 finished in 22:29, claiming the 67th spot overall and Alaina Chodoff ’11 and Kelly Grosskurth ’12 finished 77th and 89th, respectively.

“We decided to have a more aggressive strategy and go after it right from the start,” Moniz said. “We would have loved to beat one or two of the teams ranked ahead of us but we had a consistent, solid performance and were happy to place higher than we’ve been in recent years.”

Although they did not reach their ambitious goal, a seventh-place finish is still the team’s best since 2006.

“We ended up placing exactly where we were seeded against some of the best teams in the country including Villanova, the NCAA 2009 champions,” Fulmer said. “We were satisfied with our performance and it was a great finish for the varsity girls.”

The Villanova Wildcats won the meet for the second consecutive season, as they placed four runners in the top six spots.

“Because this was the last race of the season for the seven of us, I think we all had high goals and expectations to finish a little stronger than we did,” Hooper said. “Overall I think that our strong cross-country season will lead into a strong season for indoor and outdoor track.”

This meet marks the last of the season for the top seven runners on the Bison cross country team, but the rest of the team will compete at the ECAC Championships on Nov. 20 in the Bronx, N.Y.

“The ECAC Championship is a great opportunity to really show off the depth of talent on our team,” Moniz said.

“The ECAC championships allow everyone who may have been injured or had a slow start to the season the opportunity to be able to compete against many great colleges from the Northeast,” Fulmer said. “The meet is held on a historical course where decades of great runners have competed.”