Immaculata, PA – Marywood University’s women’s cross country team placed four runners in the top-ten of Saturday’s Colonial States Athletic Conference Championships to finish with 40 points, tied with Gwynedd-Mercy College, but had to settle for second place following a tiebreaker. The Pacers placed five runners on the CSAC All-Conference teams while just missing out their seventh conference title in eight years.
Marywood was led by sophomore Lauren Rustad (West Chester, PA) who placed fifth overall in the 6K race. Rustad crossed the finish line with a time of 20:53 and was followed by sixth-place finisher senior Colleen Spring (Binghamton, NY), who completed the course in 21:00.
The Pacers got a seventh-place finish from freshman Stephanie Bender (Albrightsville, PA) who ran a 21:06 to help Marywood offset the Griffins sweep of the first two places of Saturday’s race, led by individual champion Alycia Tranchitella’s 19:44.
Marywood senior Amanda Misiak placed 10th place overall while freshman Sarah Bauer brought home a 12th place result. Misiak (Bellmawr, NJ) crossed the finish line with a time of 21:31 while Bauer finished in 21:36.
Freshman Kelsey Dunn (Waldwick, NJ) ran a 21:49 to finish 15th overall while fellow rookie Jessica McCauley (Gouldsboro, PA) was 16th with a time of 21:56 as Marywood placed seven runners in the top-20 of Saturday’s championship race.
According to the CSAC Cross country code: “ties in the conference championship meet in team competition shall be broken by comparing the place finish of each team member 1-5 versus their respective competitors on the opposing team (Team A's first finisher vs. Team B's first finisher, etc.). The winner is the team winning the majority (best of five) of the comparisons.”
Therefore, Gwynedd-Mercy won the tie-breaker 3-2, as their first and second finishers placed first and second overall, and their fourth finisher placed ninth overall, ahead of Marywood’s fourth finisher who was 12th.
Rustad, Spring, and Bender all earned First Team All-Conference based on their top-seven finishes while Misiak and Bauer took home Second Team All-Conference accolades. Rustad was also named Marywood’s recipient of the CSAC Sportsmanship Award.
Additionally, Kevin Borrelli was named the CSAC Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.
The Pacers will compete next Saturday at the NCAA Regional Meet at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.