LAKELAND, Fla. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) women's cross-country team finished 15
th out of 17 teams from 20 represented schools at the 2019 NCAA Division II South Region Championships hosted by Florida Southern College at Holloway Farms on Saturday morning.
In only their team's second appearance at the Regional Championships, the Badgers finished with a total of 368 points and a combined team time of 2:06:33 over the 6,000-meter course while the Region Champion Lee University ran to 41 points in 1:51:31. SHC runners averaged 25:19 while Lee runners averaged 22:19.
Junior
Grace McCann of Chicago, Ill. was the top Badger runner with a 61
st place finish out of 120 runners for 57 points in a time of 24:28.40. Freshman
Madeline Knightly of Chicago was the 64
th place finisher in a time of 24:37.25 for 60 points. Celine Ritter of Lee took the individual Region Championship with a time of 21:41.85.
Also scoring for SHC were senior
Meghan Sullivan of Hattiesburg, Miss., in 71
st place for 67 points at 25:00.83; sophomore
Mary Elizabeth Shelton from Jacksonville, Fla., in 93
rd place at 25:57.42 for 88 points; and junior
Kimberly Atkinson of Trussville, Ala., in 101
st with 96 points at 26:29.01.
Red shirt freshman
Cat Dulle of Saint Charles, Mo., was 107
th at 27.00.60 while freshman
Olivia Freeman out of Baker High School in Mobile, Ala., was 108
th in 27:04.21.
After the meet, SHC head coach
Craig McVey said, "We raced hard, but we had several runners a little under the weather and going 1,000 meters longer than usual affected us a little. We were a stone's throw away from 12
th and on a normal day for us, we are there because we were just a handful of points away. We can realistically be a top ten team in this region. Closing that 35-point gap to 10
th really isn't that far away."
McVey summed up his thoughts, "We've had a great season with a lot of firsts while closing out our second NCAA DII season. Back-to-back women's conference titles, a men's conference runner-up finish, school record team averages, and a host of personal bests - credit goes to everyone on our squads for helping us get to where we are and to our seniors that have helped develop a culture that has set us on course for amazing things in the near future."
