A historic season for New York University's women's cross country team culminated in a second-place team finish at the 2023 NCAA Division III Championship for the Violets' best nationals result in program history.
NYU entered the meet
ranked first in the country and finished as national runners up with 154 points, three points behind team champion Carleton College (151). The University Athletic Association (UAA) champion Violets edged UAA rival University of Chicago by two points (156) as the Maroons placed third.
"I'm unbelievably proud of them," said Head Coach
Tyler Deck Shipley. "Not going to lie, three points is close and there are a million different ways to look at that. But, the fact that we're in the mix for a national title is crazy. As I just told the team, the real reward for today is when you looked out at the national course, probably for the first time in 10-15 years, that there's a hundred people wearing purple because they're here to support us.
"The fact that we've cared really, really deeply about something for the past three years and it's inspired a community of people to believe in NYU cross country again is what this is about. Rewards will come in many different ways, but when you look out there and you have a bus of people who love NYU cross country because they believe in what the people are putting into it, that's what this is about."
Besides the runners up trophy, three Violets leave the race with individual awards as
Grace Richardson,
Morgan Uhlhorn and
Viv Kane earned All-America finishes after placing among the top-40 individuals.
Richardson was NYU's top finisher, placing ninth overall and eighth among team scorers with a time of 21:18.8. Richardson, the 2023 UAA individual champion and the Violets' lone returning All-American, was in second overall after five kilometers, only trailing the College of St. Benedict's Fiona Smith who went on to win the 6k race in 19:54.1.
Uhlhorn, a freshman, placed 15th overall (14th among team scorers) at her first-ever nationals as she traversed the hilly course at Big Spring High School in Newville, PA, in a personal-best 21:22.9.
Kane, a sophomore, was the 37th runner to cross the finish line (31st among team scorers) clocking in at 21:45.8. Kate Cochran was the fourth Violet to complete the race, coming in 47th (39th team scorer) with a time of 22:02.9.
Janie Cooper rounded out NYU's scorers as the 81st student-athlete to finish (62nd team scorer) in 22:20.3.
Lucy Gott (86th, 22:23.4) and
Olivia Jackson (108th, 22:35.5) also competed for the Violets.
"We've re-energized the program, they've re-energized the program and it's because they deeply care about each other and they deeply care about what they're doing," Deck Shipley added.
There were 32 teams and 292 runners in action at the Championship.
The Violets now look to carry this momentum into the indoor track and field season as members of the distance group are set to compete at the Fast Track Season Opener in Staten Island, NY, on December 1.
