ST. LEO, FL – A stellar season for the University of Mary women's cross country team culminated today with a seventh place finish and two All-Americans at the 2016 NCAA Division II national championships. Headlined by a national runner-up performance by
Alexis Zeis and a 12
th place finish by
Ida Narbuvoll, the Marauders ended the year with the second-best NCAA team performance in program history.
"A lot of good things came out of today," said Marauders head coach
Dennis Newell. "Even though we came to get third before the meet and took seventh, there are more victories to celebrate than one negative. I think about the whole season. Over the culmination of 13 weeks we had a Griak championship, a Northern Sun championship, a regional championship, two All-Americans, the second-best NCAA finish for the program. Over the season and the day we had a great group of individuals. As soon as the race was over we saw them come together again and regroup, and that speaks volumes about how close this group is and the family atmosphere that we have. We have to bounce back from this and be stronger from it – all of us, coaches and athletes – and we will be back and will do some big things moving forward."
The defending national champion, Zeis placed second in the nation with a remarkable time of 20.26.4. For the second straight year, Zeis and Kendra Foley of Grand Valley State took the top two slots. In 2015, Zeis beat Foley by .3 seconds, the closest finish in NCAA history. This time, it was Foley who came out on top, finishing in a time of 20:01.8. A senior, Foley also won the 2014 championship.
Zeis closed strong to finish as runner-up. The junior from Bismarck, ND, was tenth at the 450 mark and steadily moved forward. She jumped to fifth at 1.3K before slipping to 6
th at the 3K checkpoint and eighth at the 4.2K mark. Zeis then made her move, moving back to 5
th 5,000 meters into the race before passing three more runners to claim second. She placed 4.1 seconds ahead of 3
rd place Caroline Kurgat of Alaska Anchorage.
"This was a tough course," said Zeis. "This wasn't like Griak with rolling hills, it had gradual hills. It was a different course than what we are used to running. This race was more mental than physical as we knew we were fit going in.
"The outcome of the team isn't what we wanted but we are happy with it. We've been dealing with a lot of injuries. Coming in and finishing seventh, that is the second best we've ever finished at the University of Mary as a team. It would have been awesome to win a trophy but we made a lot of history this year. We won conference, won Griak, won a region title, and I'm pretty proud of that. We don't graduate anyone so we'll be coming back next year stronger."
Narbuvoll started strong and jumped out to an early lead. In her first season at Mary, the sophomore was second at the 450 meter mark before leading the pack after 1,300 meters. The Norwegian runner settled back into the 11
th slot at the 4.2K checkpoint before claiming 12
th with a time of 20:51.5. Narbuvoll placed 37
th last season at the NCAA championships while running for Edinboro.
One of the top freshmen in the nation,
Kate Fox claimed 47
th overall in her first NCAA championship event. She conquered The Abbey Course's 6K trail in 21:41.9 to place third among all freshmen in the race. She just missed All-American honors by seven spots and 10.6 seconds.
Sophomore
Jaiden Schuette placed 75
th overall in her second NCAA cross country championship. The Bismarck, ND, native was clocked in 22:04.7. She placed 77
th the previous season.
Running at her first NCAA championship, sophomore
Emma Hafdahl rounded out the Marauders scoring. She placed 126
th overall with a time of 22:35.7.
Rebekkah Bond, who ran at Edinboro last year with Narbuvoll, placed 203
rd overall with a clocking of 23:58.4.
Kaycie Stewart started the race but was unable to finish.
The Marauders finished with 217 points to claim seventh, jumping five slots from last year's 12
th place finish. Mary was ranked third in the nation entering the meet in the coaches' poll.
Grand Valley State captured the national championship with 116 points, followed by Adams State (139), Western State (168), Chico State (189), Southern Indiana (209), Simon Fraser (210) and Mary.
The Marauders best-ever finish was 5
th overall in 2011.
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