Blue Cross Country Earns At-large Selection to NCAA Championships
WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Wellesley College cross country has earned an at-large selection to the 2014 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. The Blue will join 32 other schools and 56 individual qualifiers next Saturday at the Golf Center at King's Island in Mason, Ohio for the women's race, beginning at 12:30 PM.
Wellesley will make the school's third appearance, and the first since 1986, in the event that is being co-hosted by Wilmington College and the Warren County Convention and Visitor's Bureau.
The 2014 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) runner-up, the Blue finished fifth at yesterday's NCAA Regional, making the team eligible for an at-large selection.
Wellesley will join NEWMAC champion MIT as well as each of the the top six teams at yesterday's regional (Middlebury, Williams, Amherst and Tufts) at next weekend's race.
The Blue are led by all-region runners Priyanka Fouda, Taylor Bickford and Mary Keenan. Fouda, a junior from Wellesley Hills, Mass., and Bickford, a senior from Limington, Maine, also garnered NEWMAC All-Conference honors after finishing in the top-14 at the conference championships. Keenan, a native of Boerne, Texas, joined Fouda and Bickford in the top-35 at the regionals to earn all-region recognition.
Fouda, the individual champion at this year's Seven Sisters Championship race, won by the Blue, finished tenth overall in the region yesterday in Williamstown, just two weeks after finishing seventh at the NEWMAC Championships.
Bickford also finished in the top-ten at the NEWMAC Championships while Keenan wasn't far behind in 16th place.
Live video of next Saturday's race will be available beginning at 11:00 AM on NCAA.com.