The women's cross country team claimed their third straight NCCAA DII National Championship Saturday morning from the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course in Joplin, Missouri. In a field of five teams and 53 runners, the Bruins finished with 29 points to capture the national title.

"We're extremely happy," said Head Coach Ken Roach. "We wanted to keep our confidence today. Meets in November are championship caliber races. You never can predict how those will go. We wanted to stay focused and use the gifts God has given this team and glorify Him in everything we did."

Before the start and as the women's team huddled at the starting line, Coach Roach shared the word of the day, "extraordinary," as his team looked for an extraordinary race to earn their third national title. 

Coming into today's meet, the Bruins held on to the top time in the NCCAA DII rankings all season, but as assistant coach Jonathan Keller said, "anyone having a bad day or anyone having a good day on another team could turn the tides."

As the race began, the Bruins would get out to a good start on what would be a hilly course and in cold, windy conditions.

At the finish line, Joanna Lain crossed first for the Bruins and fifth overall with a personal best time of 20:16.1. After a runner from Maranatha Baptist College came across the finish, it was a surge of Bruins as five runners crossed the line back to back. Finishing seventh overall with a time of 20:43 was Sarah Alferink. Just three seconds later was Joy Hast with a solid finish to today's 5k. Freshman Lauren Jones cut 27 seconds off of her previous best time to finish in the top-10 with a time of 20:49.5. Senior Margaret Snyder closed out her collegiate cross country career at 20:54.9 to finish in 10th place and round out the scoring for the Bruins. 

It was a solid performance from Liesl Heinz as she finished 11th overall. The PR's kept coming as senior Lydia Flynn saw a 30 second personal best in her final cross country race. Closing out the race for the Bruins was Hannah Cathey and Elizabeth Farley, who also came away with a new PR and time of 22:22.7. 

Seven of the Bruins finished in the top-15 as the team raced to a team time of 1:43:30 and 29 points, the second lowest score ever and the second best time recorded at nationals.

Following the race, Joanna Lain earned All-American honors which is awarded to the top-five finishers at the National Championships. She becomes just the seventh All-American in team history. In addition, Head Coach Ken Roach was named the NCCAA DII Coach of the Year as his team ran to a championship finish. 

Full results from today's NCCAA DII National Championships can be found here. 




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