To close out the 2017 season, the Waynesburg University women’s cross country team finished in seventh place at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional Cross Country Championships Saturday, Nov. 11 out of the 49-team event.

Coming off the program’s second consecutive Presidents’ Athletic Conference title, the team entered the regional meet with the goal of qualifying for NCAA Division III National’s as a team. Such a goal required the team to finish in the top five at the meet to move on.

Despite not making it to nationals, head coach Chris Hardie is still very proud of the effort that the team put forward.

“I think they did really well, they stuck to the plan that [assistant] coach Michelle Cross and I mapped out for them in terms of how to strategically open up that race and then how to cut down time throughout that race,” said Hardie. “They hit the times pretty close, but the placing of the girls was way off, so we just estimated incorrectly. The region was a lot better than we thought it was going in.”

Reigning PAC champion and captain Angie Marchetti finished first for the Yellow Jackets with a time of 22:54, and in 26th place overall out of the 351-women field. Junior Teghan Simonton finished 51st with a time of 23:43 in the race. The rest of the scoring five included, seniors Julie Gerber and Elinore Loch and freshmen Becca Volz.

Waynesburg University was ranked fifth in the Mideast Region in the preseason poll during the summer, however the team fell back to seventh place as polls continued during the season.

While depth is certainly a strong suit of the team in both the PAC and Region, Hardie believes the one thing that hurt the team, probably the most in terms of potentially qualifying for nationals as a team, was the lack of a lead runner at the top of the region, which the team had two of last season.

“They really went for it, one through seven, and left it all out there probably more than any other regional team,” said Hardie. “But on the way back from the meet we talked about it the van…We probably let an opportunity slip away last year because that was a really talented group. Having low sticks at nine and 12 with Emily and Katie [Latimer], that was something we missed this weekend, we just didn’t have anyone in the top 10 to get us some really low points.”

Despite not qualifying for the national meet, captain Angie Marchetti is more than happy with the performance her team put forth at regionals.

“We were ranked seventh, so finishing what we were ranked I think is still really impressive,” said Marchetti. “I’m just really proud of everybody because you could tell that everyone just gave it their all. Everyone did amazing, top to bottom, and ran their hearts out.”