Women Claim 20th at 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championship

Saturday, November 22

Terre Haute, Ind.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

NCAA Championship

Women Claim 20th at 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championship

11/22/2014 12:44:00 PM | Women's Cross Country

By: Dartmouth

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Dartmouth women's cross country team finished 20th Saturday afternoon at the 2014 NCAA National Championship.

The meet was hosted by Indiana State and held on the 6K LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.

The Big Green were led by junior Dana Giordano who finished 45th in 20:49, an impressive achievement considering she was tripped and stepped on near the 1000m point of the race, costing her both time and points. The 45th-place finish added 33 points to her team's total, but the trip and subsequent placement cost her a shot at consecutive All-American honors as the top-40 runners are given the distinction.

Dartmouth earned its place in the standings with 508 points. Michigan State was the team champion with 85 points, while Iona junior Kate Avery (19:31) was the individual winner.

“I was proud of the way the group ran today,” first-year head coach Courtney Jaworski said. “Dana fought back after her fall, Sarah (DeLozier) ran better than she had last year, and Claudia, Reid, Helen and Sarah Bennett all ran very solid races on a national level against the best competition in the country.”

In the final cross country race of her career, senior Sarah DeLozier ran to a 52nd-place finish (36 points) in 20:53. Classmate Claudia Pham was the next Dartmouth harrier to cross the finish line, doing so in 160th place (124 points) with a time of 21:37 to her credit.

Junior Sarah Bennett ran to 189th place, earning 151 points for the Big Green, while crossing the line in 21:50. Seven seconds later saw fellow junior Reid Watson take 202nd overall (164 points) to round out the scoring for the team from the Upper Valley.

Helen Schlachtenhaufen was 231st in 22:27 and Alison Lanois was 241st in 22:49, concluding the Big Green's seven-woman field competing on Saturday.

As a team, Dartmouth was the lone Ivy League representative at nationals on either the men's (10K) or women's side.

The Big Green finished ahead of teams from Boston College (21st), North Carolina (22nd), Washington (23rd) and Syracuse (24th) as well as Ohio State, UCLA, Norte Dame, Minnesota and Virginia Tech.