Women's XC places 5th at Nationals

Warsaw, IN -- It was a great day for the Emmaus University Women's Cross Country team as they traveled to Warsaw, IN to compete in the NCCAA DII National Meet. The team was met with great competition, great conditions, and stepped up to the occasion with most runners achieving a season's best or personal record (PR) times.

The women's race kicked off the meet, and the team ultimately placed 5^th, coming up just 9 points short of 4^th place and a podium spot. The Eagles were led by Anna Coniglio crossing the line in 15^th place and clocking in at 21:45, which was a season's best. Coniglio ran more than one-minute faster, than at last year's meet on the same course.

Following Coniglio was Kate Janzen, running a time of 22:25, also a season's best, and exactly 30-seconds faster than her time from last year's national meet. Auggie Christensen crossed the line next for the Eagles clocking in at 23:12, as she pushed through illness and performed well for the team. Bria Tuttle and Riley Rath ran most of the race side-by-side, with both finishing strong, achieving PRs at 24:52 and 25:01 respectively.

For the first time in her career, Carolyn Rogers broke the 30-minute barrier, completely skipping over the 29-minute range, and clocking in at 28:59. Rounding out the women's competition was Alice Hanselman running in her first race of the season and finishing in 34:26

"We are super happy with how the ladies ran today, and which really set the tone for rest of the meet," exclaimed head coach Jeremiah Gerardy. "The goal is always to run our best at the end of the season, and we absolutely accomplished that today. A couple highlights of the weekend include Kate Janzen receiving the Dr. Ray Bullock Award, and senior Carolyn Rogers breaking 30-minutes for the first time! Carolyn started with the program in our very first year, and she was hardly able to run a half mile. Today was the perfect...showing-off the hard work and perseverance she's dedicated toward the team, while achieving her final goal at her last collegiate race!"