Friday, November 15
Bethlehem, Pa.
11:00 a.m.
West Virginia University
vs
NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional
Photo by: Norman Wills
WVU Finishes Fifth at Regionals
November 15, 2019 01:44 PM | Cross Country
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Three top-25 finishes led the West Virginia University cross country team to a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, hosted by Lehigh University, on Friday morning, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Redshirt junior Hayley Jackson, redshirt senior Candace Archer and freshman Ceili McCabe paced the Mountaineers, finishing inside the top 25 and collecting All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors in the process.
Jackson was the first Mountaineer across the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course finish line, registering a 6k time of 20:38.1 to finish 12th. Archer was right behind her, placing 14th, with a time of 20:38.7. McCabe rounded out the top 25 after crossing the line in 20:47.
Just behind McCabe was redshirt senior Olivia Hill, who took 29th with a time of 20:51.5. Redshirt junior Antigone Archer was the next Mountaineer to finish, as she posted a time of 21:07.7, good for 42nd place and to round out the Mountaineers' scoring.
"As the race unfolded, it was very clear that we chose a race plan that had us run very patiently for the first half of the race to slowly move through the field," Mountaineer coach Sean Cleary said. "The group was flying home over the last 2k, but unfortunately ran out of time before truly getting into the pace. With 2k to go, I believe our top girl was around 40th place, before we had the entire scoring five pass approximately 72 runners."
Also racing for the Mountaineers were redshirt freshman Katherine Dowie who finished 47th (21:14.5) and sophomore Charlotte Wood who placed 50th (21:18.3).
The Mountaineers collected 122 team points to finish in fifth place. Villanova took the top spot with 73 points, and Georgetown was second with 77. Penn State (91), Princeton (93) and West Virginia rounded out the top five. Villanova and Georgetown earned automatic bids into the 2019 NCAA Championships on Nov. 23, in Terre Haute, Indiana.
WVU's fifth-place finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regional is its highest finish since 2016 when the team finished fourth at Penn State's Blue-White Golf Course.
Friday's race featured 27 teams and 182 runners. It also marked the Mountaineers' second visit to Lehigh's home course this season, and their sixth since 2009.
Jackson, Archer and McCabe collect all-region accolades for the first time in their careers, and they are the Mountaineers' first honorees since the 2017 season. The trio also was named to the All-Big 12 team at the conference meet earlier this month.
The three all-region honors are the most for the squad since 2016 when Amy Cashin, Jillian Forsey and Maggie Drazba were named to All-Mid-Atlantic Region. Forsey qualified for the 2016 NCAA Championships with a second-place finish at the regional meet.
In the last 10 years, 17 different Mountaineers have collected all-region accolades at the regional meet.
"The team goals this year were to be a better team than we were the year before," Cleary added. "We had a strong season a year ago and indeed we are a much better group this fall. We had four All-Big 12 honorees, three All-Mid-Atlantic Region honorees, and now our fate will lie in the hands of our qualifying procedures in the hopes of a shot of running in the NCAA Championships. We need a few things to fall our way, but we have helped ourselves with crucial wins over automatic qualifying teams from the other regional results today."
Jackson, Archer and McCabe now look to earn individual bids into the 2019 NCAA Championships. A total of 38 individual runners are selected to compete at nationals following team qualifications. The top-four finishers at each regional from non-qualifying teams receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, as long as they finished inside the top 25 at the regional meet. Two at-large bids for remaining runners in a national pool of top-25 regional finishers also will be selected.
For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUXCTF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Redshirt junior Hayley Jackson, redshirt senior Candace Archer and freshman Ceili McCabe paced the Mountaineers, finishing inside the top 25 and collecting All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors in the process.
Jackson was the first Mountaineer across the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course finish line, registering a 6k time of 20:38.1 to finish 12th. Archer was right behind her, placing 14th, with a time of 20:38.7. McCabe rounded out the top 25 after crossing the line in 20:47.
Just behind McCabe was redshirt senior Olivia Hill, who took 29th with a time of 20:51.5. Redshirt junior Antigone Archer was the next Mountaineer to finish, as she posted a time of 21:07.7, good for 42nd place and to round out the Mountaineers' scoring.
"As the race unfolded, it was very clear that we chose a race plan that had us run very patiently for the first half of the race to slowly move through the field," Mountaineer coach Sean Cleary said. "The group was flying home over the last 2k, but unfortunately ran out of time before truly getting into the pace. With 2k to go, I believe our top girl was around 40th place, before we had the entire scoring five pass approximately 72 runners."
Also racing for the Mountaineers were redshirt freshman Katherine Dowie who finished 47th (21:14.5) and sophomore Charlotte Wood who placed 50th (21:18.3).
The Mountaineers collected 122 team points to finish in fifth place. Villanova took the top spot with 73 points, and Georgetown was second with 77. Penn State (91), Princeton (93) and West Virginia rounded out the top five. Villanova and Georgetown earned automatic bids into the 2019 NCAA Championships on Nov. 23, in Terre Haute, Indiana.
WVU's fifth-place finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regional is its highest finish since 2016 when the team finished fourth at Penn State's Blue-White Golf Course.
Friday's race featured 27 teams and 182 runners. It also marked the Mountaineers' second visit to Lehigh's home course this season, and their sixth since 2009.
Jackson, Archer and McCabe collect all-region accolades for the first time in their careers, and they are the Mountaineers' first honorees since the 2017 season. The trio also was named to the All-Big 12 team at the conference meet earlier this month.
The three all-region honors are the most for the squad since 2016 when Amy Cashin, Jillian Forsey and Maggie Drazba were named to All-Mid-Atlantic Region. Forsey qualified for the 2016 NCAA Championships with a second-place finish at the regional meet.
In the last 10 years, 17 different Mountaineers have collected all-region accolades at the regional meet.
"The team goals this year were to be a better team than we were the year before," Cleary added. "We had a strong season a year ago and indeed we are a much better group this fall. We had four All-Big 12 honorees, three All-Mid-Atlantic Region honorees, and now our fate will lie in the hands of our qualifying procedures in the hopes of a shot of running in the NCAA Championships. We need a few things to fall our way, but we have helped ourselves with crucial wins over automatic qualifying teams from the other regional results today."
Jackson, Archer and McCabe now look to earn individual bids into the 2019 NCAA Championships. A total of 38 individual runners are selected to compete at nationals following team qualifications. The top-four finishers at each regional from non-qualifying teams receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, as long as they finished inside the top 25 at the regional meet. Two at-large bids for remaining runners in a national pool of top-25 regional finishers also will be selected.
For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUXCTF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Players Mentioned
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
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