Moorestown’s Kate Inglis, a junior at Catholic University in Washington, received an at-large bid to race in the NCAA Division 3 Championships and leads the South Jersey women’s contingent this weekend in Newville, Pa.
Inglis placed 6th in the NCAA South Region Championships Saturday and the top seven finishers in each of 10 regions who aren’t part of qualifying teams move on to nationals.
Inglis ran an all-course lifetime-best 22:06.1 over 6,000 meters at Berry College in Rome, Ga., and was Catholic’s top finisher.
Her previous 6K PR was 22:35.4 at Division 3 Pre-Nationals on the course adjacent to Big Spring High School in Newville, about 40 miles west of Harrisburg, the site of this weekend’s national championship race.
This will be Inglis’s first trip to NCAAs in either track or cross country. She placed 48th and 46th at XC Regionals as a freshman and sophomore before enjoying a breakthrough season this fall. She placed 2nd in the Landmark Conference Championships in Huntingdon, Pa., behind only Elizabethtown senior Kelty Oaster.
Haddonfield graduate Katherine Rice, a junior at The College of New Jersey, and sophomore Savannah Hodgens from Mainland Regional, advanced to nationals as part of TCNJ’s regional championship team. Rice placed 16th Saturday and was TCNJ’s 4th finisher in 22:57.8, a 6,000 PR for any course, and Hodgens was 37th in 23:36.9 – a minute faster than she ran at regionals last year.
Cinnaminson’s Stephanie Renouf, a freshman at Middlebury (Conn.) College, also qualified as part of Middlebury’s team, which received an at-large bid after placing 5th in the Mideast Region at Stanley Park in Westfield, Mass. Renouf ran 22:57.4, just two seconds off her 6K PR of 22:55.5 from the Connecticut College Invitational in Waterford, Conn., last month.
The Stockton women did not receive an at-large bid to nationals despite placing 2nd to The College of New Jersey in the Metro Region. The Ospreys will be represented by junior Jaelyn Barkley of Belvidere High School in Warren County and sophomore Kayla Kass of County Prep in Jersey City in the women’s race.
Williamstown graduate Anna Sasse, a Rowan junior, missed an at-large individual berth by half a second. The top seven runners in each region advance to nationals and Sasse ran 22:12.3 and was half a second out of 7th. But she ran a 6,000-meter all-course PR, finished in the top 10 at both the NJAC meet and NCAA regionals and has another chance at nationals next fall.
We’ll take a look at the South Jersey men’s contingent headed to Nationals later today,
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 