Complete Women's Results
JOPLIN, Mo. – The Edinboro womens's cross country team made a successful return to the NCAA Division I National Championships on Saturday, taking home 14
th place out of the 32-team field. The Fighting Scots were competing at Nationals for the first time since 2007. Edinboro finished with 376 points.
Even more important for the Fighting Scots, a pair of runners earned All-American runners. That had not happened since the 2004 Scots had three All-Americans.
Kacey Gibson paced the Fighting Scots as the senior came in 27
th, covering the 6,000-meter Missouri Southern State Cross Country Course in a time of 21:09.2.
Sarah Krolick, a junior in her first season with the Fighting Scots, joined Gibson as an All-American, coming in 36
th with a time of 21:15.6.
Gibson and Krolick and the 101st and 102nd All-Americans in head coach Doug Watts' long career. Earlier in the day men's runner Bryan Deibel became the 100th All-American.
Grand Valley State took home the women's national championship, edging Augustana(SD) and Adams State. The Lakers totaled 101 points while Augustana had 104 and Adams State 109. Western State finished with 172 points to come in fourth and Chico State was fifth (200). Adams State's Alicia Nelson won the individual championship as she posted a time of 20:03.3.
Emily Ahrens was the third Boro finisher, as the sophomore finished 70
th with a time of 21:52.8. Fellow sophomore
Kasey Jones came in 136
th (22:40.9), with another sophomore
Megan Maffett, closing out Edinboro's scorers, coming in 186
th (23:12.5). Senior
Hannah Kucewicz (192
nd – 23:19.0) and junior
Liz Budzinski (204
th – 23:32.8) were Edinboro's final competitors.
"We were good through our top three finishers," related long-time head coach Doug Watts. "We just failed to come up with an adequate fifth runner. (Kacey) Gibson moved up well from the early part of the race, but (Sarah) Krolicks lack of leg speed dropped her eight place late in the race. It was still a good showing with two All-Americans."
