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Teams: Women's Cross Country: Press
Releases
Monday, November 13, 2006
WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY GAINS AT-LARGE BERTH TO NATIONALS
MEDFORD -- For the
second straight season, and for the third time in team history, the Tufts
University women's cross country team will compete at the NCAA National
Championship Race. Head Coach Kristen Morwick's Jumbos received an at-large
berth into the field of 32 teams that will race for the 2006 national title.
Wilmington College in
Ohio will host the 2006 ivision III Men's and Women's Cross Country
Championships at Voice of America Park in West Chester, Ohio. The men's race
will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern time followed by the women's race at noon
Eastern time.
At Nationals, Tufts
will race the same seven runners who started at the NCAA Division III Qualifier
hosted by Springfield College this past weekend. Junior tri-captain Catherine
Beck (Brookline, NH/Hollis-Brookline), sophomore Evelyn Sharkey (Brunswick,
ME/John Bapst), junior Katy O'Brien (North Easton, MA/Oliver Ames),
senior Raquel Morgan (Middletown, MD/Middletown), senior tri-captains Jenny
Torpey (Bellingham, WA/Sehome) and Sarah Crispin (Auburn, ME/Edward Little)
and sophomore Katie Rizzolo (Franklin, MA/Franklin) are scheduled to compete.
Sophomore Susan Allegretti (Crown Point, IN/Lake Central) and senior Samantha
Moland (Londonderry, NH/Londonderry) will also travel with the team as alternates.
Tufts finished fourth at last Saturday's NCAA regional championship race, which
helped them land an at-large berth to the national championship race. Beck
took third individually. The New England women's region is very strong
nationally, with the top four teams ranked second (Amherst), third (Tufts),
fifth (Williams) and eighth (Middlebury) in last week's national poll. Those
five and #16 Keene State will all race at Nationals.
Tufts' second-place
finish at the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC)
championship race on October 28, finishing just five points out of first, also
boosted its profile for an at-large berth. O'Brien won the individual
conference title and Beck was second.
The Jumbos placed 22nd
at the national race last season, but Beck, Morgan, O'Brien, Crispin, Rizzolo
and Sharkey all gained vital national race experience.
"I think we're in a
much better place going into NCAAs this year and I do think making it last year
takes the pressure off," Morwick said. "I think in general, the goal is to
do better than last year, which shouldn't be too tough, but I think top 10 would
be reasonable. We race against some of the best in the nation on a weekly basis,
so we're prepared. The course is flat and fast, and that helps us."
Tufts also qualified as
a team in 1999 and took 11h. They will look to register their
best-ever finish on Saturday.
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