Results
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The first NCAA Division II All-Americans from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference were crowned at the NCAA Women’s Cross Country Championship hosted by the University of Southern Indiana on Saturday.
The 6K race featured two Great Midwest institutions, Hillsdale and Walsh, along with Malone’s Jade Smith competing as an individual.
The league placed three runners in the top 20 overall of the total 247 competitors at Angel Mounds Park.
Hillsdale, the reigning Great Midwest team champion from the current season, finished seventh as a team with 32 total institutions in the field, while Walsh would place a more than respectable 12th in the standings.
Hillsdale and Walsh were both second and third, respectively, at the NCAA Midwest Regional at Cedarville’s Elvin R. King Course to earn qualification into the national championships.
Cementing her status as the NCAA Division II runner-up was Walsh senior All-American Sarah Berger, who put the finishing touches on the most outstanding by a G-MAC cross country runner in the league’s history.
Berger was the United State Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Midwest Region Athlete of the Year, the Great Midwest Runner of the Year and a four-time league selection as athlete of the week.
Berger shattered both the 6K and 5K records in her only year with the conference. She crossed the line in second place overall with a time of 20:52.10, just one-tenth of a second away from matching her Great Midwest record of 20:52.00 set at the All-Ohio Championships.
Runner-up at the NCAA Midwest Regional was Hillsdale senior Hannah McIntyre, who earned her placing on the awards podium with NCAA All-American honors at fourth overall in the field with a time of 20:54.60, third-best all-time in conference history.
Malone’s senior Jade Smith punctuated an impressive finish to her career by giving the Great Midwest its third All-American and third runner to place in the top 20 nationally. Smith finished the 6K in 21:28.00, the sixth-fastest 6K time record in the league.
The overall national women’s champion in the race Alaska Anchorage’s Carolina Kurgat (20:32.30). Winning the team championship was Adams State from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).
The Chargers team finished in the top quarter of the field to stake their claim to the best Great Midwest finish after Cedarville was 11th last year at the national meet in Saint Leo, Fla. As back-to-back NCAA qualifiers, Hillsdale was paced by McIntyre but also had strong races from sophomore Arena Lewis (52nd), freshman Christina Sawyer (67th), Great Midwest Freshman of the Year Maryssa Depies (73rd), junior Allysen Eads (130th), freshman Kyleigh Edwards (135th) and sophomore Addison Rauch (171st).
The Cavaliers of Walsh were included in the team scoring with contributions from junior Bianna Coy (62nd), senior Chelsea Johnson (114th), sophomore Andra Lehotay (124th), senior Tori Reeves (143rd), senior Maggie Kroll (166th) and freshman Alexa Leppelmeier (185th).
Due to inclement weather in the area, the NCAA committee moved up the start time of Saturday’s men’s and women’s races an hour and 45 minutes earlier to accommodate course conditions.