UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Freshman
Morgan Szekely became the first freshman in La Salle cross country history to qualify for the NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships thanks to her fifth place finish Friday afternoon at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
Szekely posted a time of 20:34 on her way to the fifth place finish and was the fastest freshman finisher at the meet. After two miles Szekely sat in sixth place with a time of 20:38 and she ran at a pace of 5:31 overall on the day.
"I couldn't be happier with my performance today," said Szekely. "I stuck with my coach's plan for the race and I executed the strategy to the best of my ability. I can't wait for nationals. it will be a great experience and I feel so blessed."
As a team, the Explorers finished in 12
th place with 337 points, the second best finish of any A-10 team in the meet behind only Duquesne. La Salle had an average time of 22:03 on the day. Overall there were 32 teams in the race and 207 total runners.
"Today was a tremendous performance by Morgan," said head coach
Tom Peterson. "To finish fifth in such a competitive region as a freshman is very impressive. She has worked hard all year and it showed today. Morgan continued our streak of an Explorer woman running at the NCAA Cross Country Championships."
Freshman
Megan Connell was the second Explorer to cross the finish line with a time of 21:56 which was good for 49
th place overall. She was followed by juniors
Molly Mickle and
Rebecca Scardelletti who finished 85
th and 95
th respectively. They ran times of 22:26 and 22:34 on the day.
Senior
Taylor Hackett finished in 103
rd place with a time of 22:42 on the day and was followed closely by freshman
Michelle Myland who ran 22:45 for a 106
th place finish. The final Explorer to cross was
Kaylie McNally who crossed in 23:20 for a 127
th place finish.
"The girls followed up Atlantic 10 Championships with a solid team performance," added Coach Peterson. "We only lose two of our top seven next year, big things are on the horizon."
Georgetown took home the team crown with 38 points followed closely by West Virginia who tallied 42 points. Katrina Coogan a senior from Georgetown won the race with a time of 20:06.
This is the third straight year that the La Salle women will be represented at the National Championships.
Meghan McGlinchey qualified in 2012 after finishing second at the regionals, and
Michelle Capozzi qualified last year with a 17
th place finish at regionals. Szekely becomes the fifth overall La Salle woman to qualify with Sheila Klick (2003) and Rachel Papin (2005-07) also qualifying.
Szekely has been the top La Salle finisher in five of the six races she has run in this year, including her individual championship at the Atlantic 10 Championships two weekends ago in Pittsburgh.
The team will finish out their season at the ECAC Championships in Bronx, N.Y. on November 22 while Szekely will run in Terre Haute, Indiana that same day at the NCAA Championships.
