STANDISH, MAINE - Junior Kara MacLean (Braintree, Mass.) finished sixth to lead the Simmons women's cross country team to a third-place finish at the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship hosted by Saint Joseph's College today in Standish, Maine.
MacLean finished with a time of 21:37 to lead the Sharks and was named to the GNAC All-Conference team by virtue of her top-10 finish. Norwich University's Chapel Gaurnieri (Pepperell, Mass.) paced the Cadets with a first-place showing of 20:49 to lead them to the GNAC team crown with 66 points. Simmons was just nine points behind at 75 to place third as a team.
The Sharks placed four runners among the top 16. Sophomore Sara Harland (Pembroke, Mass.) clocked in at 22:10 to place 12th overall, while classmate Mia DeLuccia (Lynnfield, Mass.) was just two ticks behind to finish 14th. Sophomore Madison Rivard (Sharon, Mass.) crossed the line at 22:21 to come in at 16th and eclipse her personal-best time by five seconds. Classmate Bethanie Royality-Lindman (Wakfield, R.I.) rounded out the scoring for Simmons, placing 27th with a mark of 22:41.
A trio of Sharks all posted personal-best times on the day. First year Gabby Lawinger (Arnold, Md.) clocked a 27:19 to shave 65 seconds off her previous best and placed 85th overall, while sophomore BryceLynn Cook (North Waterboro, Maine) turned in a pesonal-record mark of 31:47 to shatter her previous record by 2:15 and finish 96th. Classmate Emily Fowler's (Chula Vista, Calif.) time of 34:05 was an improvement of nine seconds over her previous top time and was good for 99th place.
Junior Alicia Morales (Uxbridge, Mass.) matched her season-best mark of 23:30 to place 39th overall for Simmons, while senior Lillian Pham (Springfield, Mass.) topped her season-best time by 51 seconds with a 24:05 to finish 49th. Junior Monica Khun (Lawrence, Mass.) also registered a season-best time with 25:28 to cut 44 seconds off her previous top time this season and placed 70th.
The Sharks will compete again on Saturday, November 15 when they head to Williamstown, Mass. to compete in the NCAA III Regional Championship.