Principia's Powell Lone Women's Runner to Qualify for NCAA Championships

ST. LOUIS - Principia's College Casey Powell was the lone women's runner from the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic (SLIAC) to qualify for the NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championships. Powell placed 17th with a time of 22:25.99 at the Midwest Regional hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Powell led Principia to a 19th place team finish out of 40 teams competing. Westminster College (Mo.) placed 24th, while Greenville College, Webster University and Fontbonne University finished in 33rd, 34th and 35th place respectively.

Westminster's Sarah Koestner was the only other SLIAC runner to place in the top 50. She ran a time of 22:54 on the 6K course to place 40th out of 276 runners competing. Also placing in the top 100 were Westminster's Kaily Downey (73rd) and Principia's Sarah Litwiller (76th) with times of 23:25 and 23:28 respectively.

Rosie Nelson was the top runner for Greenville in 175th place and a time of 25:29. Eroica Stackhouse led Webster with a time of 24:36 in 129th place, while Fontbonne's Alyssa Tonner posted a time of 24:19 for 118th place.

Spalding University competed at the Great Lakes Regional hosted by Anderson University (Ind.) and placed 29th out of 33 total teams. Kayla Payne was the top runner for the Golden Eagles, posting a time of 25:28.48 to finish 152nd out of 234 runners overall.

Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in the NCAA DIII Women's Cross Country Championship. The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the eight regions, for a total of 16 teams. Sixteen additional teams were selected at-large. Fifty-six individuals, the first seven athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team, were also selected to participate in the championship.

The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology will host the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships this Saturday, November 17, at the LaVern Gibson Course in Terre Haute, Ind. The women's race will begin at approximately 12:00pm local time, following the men's race which begins at 11:00am local time.