HAVERFORD, Pa. – After receiving an at-large bid, the Haverford College women's cross country team is set for the 2016 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship in Louisville, Kentucky this Saturday. The Fords' appearance in this week's national championship will be the program's 16th appearance all-time as a team. Haverford has qualified as a team in seven of the past eight seasons.
The Fords enter the meet ranked 31st in the latest national poll and placed 24th at the 2015 NCAA Championship. Haverford has finished in the top 20 eight times in program history with its best showing coming during the 1993 national meet when the team placed 10th. Haverford also has a 13th place (2012) and 17th place (2013) showing during its recent run of NCAA success.
Should Haverford enter the same seven runners who competed at the NCAA Mideast Regional, the Fords would have five individuals returning from last year's NCAA meet. Amelia Keyser-Gibson was Haverford's highest finisher last year when she set her personal best time of 21:54.0 to place 46th in her NCAA debut. Keyser-Gibson is also a two-time All-Mideast Region selection who is coming off of a 35th place finish at regionals last weekend.
Katie Sullivan has been Haverford's top runner for the majority of the season. She placed 159th at last year's NCAA Cross Country championship. Sullivan has already repeated her first-team All-Centennial Conference honors and All-Mideast Region honors this fall. She has a personal best time of 21:24.0 which she set at the conference championship. Nicole Giannetti earned the first All-Centennial Conference and All-Mideast Region honors of her cross country career this fall. She placed 183rd at the national championship last fall, but set a new personal best time of 21:58.7 at the conference championship to start the month of November.
MaryKate Cavanaugh has consistently been in Haverford's top five this season. She turned in a time of 23:46.6 to place 260th at last year's national meet. However, she has cut over a full minute off of that time and now has a personal best mark of 22:39.1 which she set at the conference meet. Sarah Wade placed 280th at the national meet last year. She set a personal best time of 23:06.5 at the Centennial Conference Championship and nearly broke that mark as she was the team's fourth finisher at the Mideast Regional.
Freshman Abigail Doroshow has also been among the Fords' scoring runners on a consistent basis. Her personal best time of 22:54 came at the Paul Short Race in the beginning of October. She just missed All-Mideast Regional accolades with a 43rd place finish last weekend, but was honored on the Mideast Regional All-Freshmen Team for her performance. Alison Love would be making her NCAA debut. Love set her personal best time of 23:45.6 at the Centennial Conference Championship when she placed 39th overall.
The women's race will begin at 11 a.m. at Tom Sawyer Park and will be followed by the men's race at 12 p.m. noon. Haverford is one of just 17 schools in Division III that is sending its full men's and women's teams to the national championship.