The Hopkins Women’s cross country team ended the year with a seventh place finish at the NCAA Championships in Waverly, Iowa at Wartburg College.
The top five finishers for Hopkins finished the six-kilometer race with times inside of a one minute-six-second window.
Junior Cecilia Furlong led the Blue Jay runners with a time of 21:43.4, good for 32nd overall.
Furlong has led the team all season with top finishes and encouraging words.
“This whole season, we really just continued to surpass our own expectations of what we are capable of,” Furlong wrote in an email.
Senior Christina Valerio finished right behind her in 33rd place with a time just 2.1 seconds slower.
Furlong’s time was not her fastest this season. On October 30th at the Centennial Conference meet, Furlong ran a six-kilometer race in 21:29.0, guiding the Jays to their third straight conference title.
This was Valerio’s best time this season. The race marked the end of the Captain’s Hopkins cross country career.
Freshman Lara Shegoski placed third for Hopkins and 86th overall with a time of 22:19.7, and sophomore Liz Provost placed 99th overall. Provost finished fourth for the Blue Jays with a time 22:24.9.
Shegoski also ran faster on October 30th with a time of 22:00.0. Provost was four seconds faster at Nationals than she was at Conferences.
Senior Megan Brower finished fifth for the Blue Jays and added 105 points with a time of 22:48.4.
Hopkins totaled 265 points for the seventh place finish. The Blue Jays also finished seventh at the NCAA Championships a year ago.
Middlebury took home the National Championship. Washington University in St. Louis finished second, followed by MIT, Wisconsin–Eau Claire, Williams and Luther before Hopkins. Centennial Conference rival Dickinson finished 22nd with 516 points. 32 teams competed.
Senior Wendy Pavlus from St. Lawrence finished first with a time of 20:49.3 and sophomore Jennifer Gossels finished second with a time of 21:00.8. Pavlus has won the individual title in two consecutive years. In third, from St. Norberts, Jenny Scherer had a time of 21:08.9. 224 runners competed in the NCAA Championship race.
The end of the running season marks the beginning of awards season. Furlong and Valerio were both named All-Americans by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for their contributions at Nationals and throughout the season. Furlong was also recently named Mideast Region Runner of the Year.
The Lady Jays ran quite a ways this season and plan to repeat their success in 2011. “Our team this year was very young,” Furlong wrote. “Next year we’re going to be returning five of our top eight runners, and I think we definitely have the potential to surpass the success of this season.”
Coach Bobby Van Allen was named Centennial Conference women’s cross country Coach of the Year. He also won the award in 2008 – the first year his runners won the Centennial Conference and NCAA Regional titles. They also won those two titles in 2009 and 2010.
Furlong had nothing but praise for her coaching staff. “I think we all responded extremely well to [their] approach,” Furlong wrote.
The Blue Jays will return many of their core members next year and hope to build off their impressive 2010 campaign.
