Women's Cross Country | 11/22/2014 4:18:00 PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Results

MASON, Ohio (Nov. 22, 2014) -- Returning to the national stage for just the third time in program history, the North Central College women's cross country team turned in a 20^th-place performance Saturday at the NCAA Division III National Championships held at the Golf Center at Kings Island.
 
The course for the women's race was in much worse shape after the conclusion of the men's race, proving to be another obstacle for an already youthful team as the Cardinals did not get the best start off the gun and found themselves near the back of the pack early on.
 
"We stayed persistent and worked their way back into the pack," said head coach Mahesh Narayanan.  "At one point we had most of our seven runners in the back of the pack, but it's a lesson learned on how to run at this caliber of race and learn how to position ourselves."
 
North Central finished with a total of 539 points in the team standings, as Johns Hopkins University (Md.) captured the team title amassing 87 points.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology finished runner-up with 112 points, while St. Lawrence University (N.Y.) (138), Washington University (Mo.) (180) and SUNY Geneseo (212) rounded out the top-five.
 
Megan Costanzo and Nora Ferguson nearly finished side-by-side in 81^st and 82^nd-place, respectively, in times of 23 minutes, 6.96 seconds and 23:07.00.  Amanda Cortese was the next Cardinal to cross the tape, finishing in 96^th-place in a time of 23:11.95, while freshman Allison Hartman finished in 206^th with a time of 24:03.86 and Katelyn Zumpf rounded out the scoring in 241^st with a time of 25:26.64.
 
"Overall we are very proud of how we competed today," said Narayanan.  "This experience means everything to our program, and now the idea is to come back year after year and build our program from here.  How we use the offseason will determine how successful we are a year from now."
 
Amy Regan of Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J) claimed the individual national title, leading from the start and traversing the 6,000-meter course in a time of 20:51.82.
 
North Central has now competed in three of the 33 Division III Women's Cross Country National Championships, finishing 13^th in 2006 and 16^th in 2011.