Women's XC Off To NCAA Championships - Columbia University Athletics

Columbia University Athletics

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — Columbia Women's Cross Country returns to the NCAA Championships for the first time as a team since 2005. The 6k race is this Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. on the campus of University of Louisville at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park.

"This will be a nice ending to a wonderful season for this group of girls," Director of Cross Country/Trank & Field Daniel Ireland said.

Thirty-one teams were selected to participate in each championship. Columbia finished fourth in the Northeast Regional on this past Friday in Buffalo, but recieved an at-large selection to the NCAA Championships.

"I told the girls 'it doesn't matter how we ran at regionals. We advanced and got to the national meet and that is all that matters. Now let's put our focus on running well at the national meet,'" Ireland said.

WOMEN'S XC HISTORY AT NCAAS

This year's team is the fifth Columbia women's cross country team at NCAAs in program history, and the first since 2005. The team qualified every year from 2002-2005. The last individual Lion to represent Columbia at NCAAs was Waverly Neer in 2013.

SEASON IN REVIEW

This season, the Ivy League Champion Lions finished in third place at the Sam Bell Invite on September 30, behind Michigan and Indiana, who were ranked No. 4 and No. 14 respectively at the time. On October 13, Columbia placed 12th at the Wisconsin Invitational behind 11 top-25 ranked teams. The Lions won the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships on October 27 at Van Cortlandt Park.

IVIES IN THE RACE

Columbia joins Dartmouth as the two Ivy League schools to represent the league in the women's race at the NCAA Championships.