CARLISLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's cross country team finished 29th in a field of 50 at Saturday's NCAA Mid-East Regional hosted by Dickinson College.
The Centennial Conference produced four of the top five team finishers at Big Spring High School, led by champion Johns Hopkins, which was followed closely by the host Red Devils, Haverford, and fifth-place Swarthmore.
Freshman Brittany Gasser (Fords, N.J./Middlesex City Academy for Allied Health Biosciences) was the top performer for the Bears, placing 80th among 365 runners with a time of 24:03.7. Gasser's time was just off a personal best, and she was 10th among competing freshmen, just missing out on the all-region rookie team.
Fellow rookie Riley Engel (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) was next across in 24:57.5, good for 129th individually. She was followed by freshman Gabrielle Manto (Robbinsville, N.J./Robbinsville) (26:26.8) before junior Alicia Baker (York, Pa./York Suburban) (27:16.0), sophomore Lily Talerman (Norfolk, Mass./King Philip) (27:18.7), and freshman Morgan Cope (Olympia, Wash./Capital) (27:24.7) completed the six-kilometer course within nine seconds of each other. Senior Danielle Grimes (Westfield, N.J./Westfield) rounded out the Bear contingent in 28:08.8.
The Blue Jays provided the race's top three individual places, led by senior champion Sophia Meehan, who crossed in 21:46.2. Junior Tess Meehan was right behind at 21:47.3 for Johns Hopkins, which captured its eight straight regional title and will go for a fourth straight national championship next week.