It's Official!
The New York University women's cross country team is returning to the NCAA Division III Championship. After finishing second in yesterday's Niagara Regional, the Violets were extended an at-large invitation to next Saturday's national championship race at the Forest Akers East Golf Course on the campus of Michigan State University in Lansing, MI.
The Violets had not qualified as a team since 2013 when they finished sixth nationally.
The official announcement was made on Sunday.
"If you look where we were last year and where we are today, it's been an incredible transformation," said Head Coach
Tyler Deck Shipley. "This demonstrates the dedication and hard work of our runners. I'm unbelievably proud of the community we've been able to build."
NYU clinched the bid with its outstanding performance on Saturday, which included four runners finishing among the top-20 in the 24-team competition. The Violets' 79-point total was second only to SUNY Geneseo's 18 and well ahead of third-place Ithaca College's 155.
Grace Richardson cracked the top-10, finishing in ninth place with a time of 22:50.7 over the 6K Genesee Valley Park course in Rochester, NY.
Janie Cooper took 11th place (22:52.7),
Leah Haley was 15th (22:57.8) and
Daniela Sekhar finished 19th (23:26.6).
"I'm looking for us to be the same team at nationals that we've been all year," Deck Shipley added. "It's an exciting challenge, and we're looking forward to celebrating this challenge by racing resiliently and competitively at this high level."
The race is set to begin at 11:00am on Saturday.
