Blue Cross Country Fifth at NEWMAC Championships; Whinney and Hanrahan Make All-Conference Team

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – Led by NEWMAC All-Conference performances from sophomore Ella Whinney (Madison, Wis.) and first year Fiona Hanrahan (Falmouth, Maine), Wellesley College cross country finished fifth out of 12 teams at the 6k NEWMAC Championships hosted by Smith College on Saturday.

Whinney and Hanrahan finished sixth and 14th out of 134 runners. Whinney finished with a time of 23:17.6 and Hanrahan ran a time of 24:00.8.

MIT won its 16th consecutive NEWMAC Women's Cross Country Championship with a team score of 35. Coast Guard placed second with a score of 47, and WPI finished third with a score of 65. Host Smith was fourth (123), followed by Wellesley (130), Mount Holyoke (194), Springfield (204), Salve Regina (216), Wheaton (272), Emerson (277), Babson (295), and Clark (356). WPI grad student Grace Hadley (North Reading, Mass.) won the race with a time of 22:18.7.

Sophomore Simone Beauchamp (Aurora, Colo.) ran a 24:59.2 to finish 29th overall while classmates Claire Peng (Chapel Hill, N.C.) (42nd - 25:28.2) and Elise Lanahan (Greenville. S.C.) (47th - 25:47.2) rounded out the scorers for the Blue.

Also competing for Wellesley were sophomores Emily Brydges (Suffield, Conn.) (61st - 26:44.9), Olivia Torres (Coral Gables, Fla.) (67th - 27:13.9), first year Georgia Harms (Dubuque, Iowa) (87th - 27:54.9), and junior Jesenia Lopez (Fontana, Calif.) (109th - 30:23.8).

The Blue will compete in the NCAA East Regional Championship at 12:00 PM on Saturday, November 11 at Hopkinton Fairgrounds in Hopkinton, N.H.