Blue Cross Country Takes Fifth at NCAA NE Regional Championship

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Behind All-Region performances from senior Priyanka Fouda (Wellesley, Mass.) and first year Mary Naas (St. Paul, Minn.), Wellesley College cross country took fifth place at the 2015 NCAA Northeast Regional Championships on Saturday afternoon at Harkness Memorial Park. 

Williams College took first with a score of 44 points. The Ephs were followed by Tufts University (107) and Middlebury College (108) in second and third place. A pair of New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) teams rounded out the top-five, with MIT (114) taking fourth and the Blue earning fifth with a score of 170 points.

Fouda finished in 11th place to lead the Wellesley pack with a time of 22:02.7. Naas was the next Blue runner to cross the line, clocking in just behind Fouda at 22:07.2 to earn 22nd place. Juniors Sonja Cwik (La Canada, Calif.) Edie Sharon (Winchester, Mass) and Mary Keenan (Boerne, Texas)  then gave Wellesley five runners in the top-50. Cwik took 40th place with a time of 22:33.2, while Sharon took 47th with a time of 22:44.9 and Keenan rounded out Wellesley's score of 170 in 50th place with a time of 22:47.6. 

Senior Sharon Ng (Sunnyvale, Calif.) wasn't far behind the Wellesley top-five, earning a 55th place finish thanks to her time of 22:55.1. Classmate Alessandra Gavin (Annapolis, Md.) also finished inside the top-100, registering a time of 23:29.5 to earn 86th place.

The field for the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Championship will be announced tomorrow afternoon. Wellesley will be hoping to make a return trip after finishing fifth at the New England regional for the second-consecutive year. Last season, the Blue qualified for the national meet for the first time since 1986.