Tartans Place Third at Mideast Regional; Three Advance to NCAA Championships

(CENTER VALLEY, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's cross country team ran to a third-place finish at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships hosted by DeSales University this Saturday. Following two top-ten nationally ranked teams, Johns Hopkins University and Dickinson College, the women finished more than 100 points ahead of fourth place, Haverford College.

"Both teams ran really well today," said Carnegie Mellon head coach Tim Connelly, "They went out with the intent to compete for what they knew they could and finished well because of that expectation." For the second consecutive year, three Tartans reached All-Region status, placing in the top-35.

"We're very happy to have made it to NCAAs as individuals, but we would be even more excited to have our team joining us with a potential at-large bid," said junior Kate Reilly (Scranton, Pa. / Scranton Prep) who led the Tartans. Reilly finished ninth overall in a time of 23:07. "Our goal was to work together at the front of the race, and we definitely achieved that today," said sophomore Parvathi Meyyappan (Cupertino, Calif. / Monta Vista) who finished just five seconds behind Reilly in 11th at 23:12. Junior Abigail Levine (Bethesda, Md. / Bethesda Chevy Chase) closed out the pack of Tartans finishing 14th overall in 23:20.

Junior Emmalyn Lindsey (Eugene, Ore. / South Eugene) finished fourth for the Tartans after returning from a recent injury finishing in 43rd in a time of 24:15. "I'm happy to be out there after not training fully in the past few weeks, but overall I think the team performed very well today," said Lindsey. Fellow junior Valerie Collins (Wellesley, Mass. / Wellesley) who was fifth for the Tartans ran to a 60th-place finish in a time of 24:36.

Finishing sixth and seventh for the Tartans, seniors Wade Lacey (Albany, N.Y., The Albany Academies) and Rose Ciriello (Madison, N.J., Madison) placed 118th and 124th overall in times of 25:32 and 25:38, respectively.

Reilly, Meyyappan and Levine are individual qualifiers for the NCAA Championships. Results of USTFCCCA at-large team bid decisions will determine if the women's team will compete at the NCAA Championships next weekend. The University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh will host the DIII NCAA Championships in Oshkosh, Wisconsin next Saturday, November 17.