LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Haverford College women's cross country team improved nine spots from its position in the national rankings to place 23rd at the NCAA Division III National Championship. Haverford scored 530 points to exactly match its total from the 2015 season and improve by one position in the team standings.

The Fords' finish is tied for their ninth best finish as a team in the program's 16 trips to the NCAA Championships. Today's performance matches the 2004 team which also placed 23rd.

Four Haverford runners improved their final placements at the national meet from the 2015 season. Highlighting that group was Katie Sullivan's 52nd place finish. Sullivan improved her finish a year ago by 107 positions as crossed the line in a time of 21:38.4. On a quick course, that time was also the fastest a Haverford runner has finished at nationals since the change to a 6,000 meter distance prior to the 2002 season. That mark includes being faster than five runners who earned All-America status at the 6,000 meter distance.

Nicole Giannetti and Amelia Keyser-Gibson crossed the line in back-to-back positions, finishing 135th and 136th. Giannetti improved 48 spots from her finish a year ago as she crossed the finish in a time of 22:10.7. Keyser-Gibson was less than a second behind her classmate with a time of 22:11.3.

Haverford's fourth and fifth scoring runners both came across in personal best times. Sarah Wade continued her postseason surge with a personal best time of 22:48.0 to improve 67 places from the 2015 meet. Abigail Doroshow ran a personal best time of 22:51.2 in her first national championship, an improvement of three seconds from her time at the conference meet.

MaryKate Cavanaugh was the team's sixth finisher as she crossed the line in a time of 23:27.4. Her 256th place finish marked a four spot improvement from last year's national championship. Alison Love was competing in her first national meet. She ran a personal best by the slimmest of margins, one-tenth of a second, to place 266th.

With one of the 10 best showing in program history, the future looks bright for women's cross country as the Fords will return all seven runners who competed at this year's NCAA Championship. Immediately looming will be the start of the indoor track & field season which gets underway on Saturday, December 3.