WINGATE, N.C. – Paced by senior Haylee Love's 10th-place finish and with four runners finishing in the top-14, the Anderson women's cross country team became the first Trojan cross country squad – men or women – to qualify for the NCAA National Championships by finishing second at the 2017 NCAA Southeast Regional, which was hosted by Wingate on Saturday morning.
Queens, the 2017 South Atlantic Conference Champions and runners-up a year ago, took home first place. After narrowly missing out on making an appearance in the championships with a fourth-place a year ago, the Trojans outdistanced nationally 16th-ranked Mount Olive, which trailed the Trojans by 16 points and finished third. North Georgia took fourth, followed by Wingate in fifth. Twenty-three teams were represented.
Mount Olive's Leah Hanle won with a time of 21:15.5, just over 14 seconds faster than runner-up Hannah Wolkenhauer of Queens (21:29.6). Coker's Darroneshia Lott (third overall, 21:59.5) and Georgia College's Katherine Yost (fourth overall, 22:11.9) finished third and fourth, respectively, and earned the individual berths to the NCAA National Championships on Nov. 18 in Evansville, Ind.
Love, who covered the 6k distance in a time of 22:58.23 and earned All-Southeast Region honors, will be making her second straight trip to the National Championships after qualifying as an individual a year ago. Freshman Olivia Evans, a Second-Team All-SAC performer, also captured All-Region accolades by finishing 12th in a time of 22:59.04.
First-Team All-Conference honoree Allyson Malone finished 13th in a time of 23:00.36, while junior Abigail Bozarth, who grabbed Second-Team All-SAC accolades two weeks ago, crossed the line in 14th place in a time of 23:01.55. Both collected All-Southeast Region honors Saturday morning.
Senior Hannah Sanford (24:30.52) and Alex Dixon (24:42.98) finished 47th and 56th, respectively. Freshman Hannah Beach rounded out the Trojan contingent in 63rd place in a time of 24:55.15.
COMPLETE WOMEN'S RESULTS
