Women’s CC sprints to 20th at NCAA finals

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The Tommie women's cross country team, which finished 20th in the NCAA finals Saturday. (Courtesy Tommiesports.com)
The Tommie women’s cross country team, which finished 20th in the NCAA finals Saturday. (Courtesy Tommiesports.com)

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The St. Thomas women’s cross country team, led by a trio of seniors, finished 20th at the 2016 NCAA Division III National Championships Saturday.

The Tommies, competing in their third-straight NCAA finals, finished ahead of the two other MIAC teams, Carleton (28) and St. Olaf (32). Johns Hopkins easily won the team title, finishing well clear of runner-up Washington University-St. Louis.

Alex Fossum was the lead Tommie runner, finishing 81st in a time of 21:48.8 over the 6K course. Bridget McGivern ran 22:03.07 to finish 119th. Kayla Janto was 144th in 22:15.1. All three posted career-best times in a 6,000-meter race.

Junior Ali Glassbrenner was 190th and junior Jenny Walz was 198th. Freshman Sara Ness was 222nd and junior Melissa Marsh was 236th.

Thirty-two teams and 280 runners competed in the race. St. Thomas was 26th last year and 21st in 2014.