Season Recap: Women's Cross Country Returns to National Stage

Season Recap: Women's Cross Country Returns to National Stage

Season Highlights: The Haverford College women's cross country team qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship for the third straight year and eighth time in the past nine seasons. The Fords placed 27th at the NCAA Division III Championship in what was the program's 17th appearance all-time as a team. Haverford earned an at-large bid to the national meet after placing third at the Mideast Regional for the second time in the past three seasons. The Fords also place third at the Centennial Conference Championship and had three All-Centennial Conference selections to go along with three All-Mideast Region honorees. During the year, the Fords won the Main Line Invitational DIII Meet and the Dickinson Invitational long race.

Awards

Season Notes: Haverford has qualified for the NCAA Championship as a team 17 times in program history, including eight of the past nine seasons … The Fords were ranked as high as No. 24 in the USTFCCCA National Poll during the fall season … Haverford had three top 10 finishers at the Centennial Conference Championship for the first time since 2013 and just the eighth time in program history … Katie Sullivan became just one of 24 runners in Centennial Conference history to be named first-team All-Centennial Conference in women's cross country during three different seasons … Nicole Giannetti repeated her second-team All-CC honors from 2016 while Amelia Keyser-Gibson raced to the first all-conference accolades of her career … Katie Sullivan and Amelia Keyser-Gibson became the 11th and 12th runners in program history to earn All-Mideast Region honors in three different seasons … Nicole Giannetti capped her cross country career as a two-time All-Mideast Region performer.

Looking ahead: Haverford will graduate a talented senior class which was headlined by the front-running trio of Katie Sullivan, Nicole Giannetti, and Amelia Keyser-Gibson. The Fords did have four runners (junior Sophie Drew, sophomore Mckenna Krall, and first years Hannah Doll and Hannah Yeakey) make their Mideast Regional and NCAA Division III Championship debuts this year. Those runners will look to lead the Fords back to the national meet as the team looks for new leaders to replace the departing seniors from the 2017 team.