Nov. 17, 2007
Complete Results
NORTHFIELD, MN - Sophomore Laura Paulsen placed 39th in a field of 280 runners to lead Johns Hopkins to a 29th-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championships Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays totaled 660 points in their first-ever appearance at the NCAA Championships. Amherst won its first women's cross country national championship with a total of 120 points. Plattsburgh State (159 points), Washington University (194), Calvin (199) and Geneseo (249) rounded out the top five.
Paulsen, who moved up 13 spots from her 52nd-place finish at last season's NCAA Championships, clocked in with a time of 22:23 to lead Hopkins' seven entries in the championship. Joining Paulsen among the five runners who scored for the Blue Jays were Rachel Hogen (145th • 23:17), Mary O'Grady (213th-place • 23:42), Mira Patel (238th • 23:57) and Megan Brower (247th • 24:06). Emma Hiza (266th • 24:40) and Christina Valerio (267th • 24:42) rounded out JHU's entries in the race.
In addition to the 32 teams selected to participate in the championship, there were also 56 individual entries in the race. Those individuals did not figure into the team scoring and thus there were variances in an individual's official place of finish and their place of finish when calculating team points (Paulsen finished 23rd among entrants from team qualifiers).
The Blue Jays will return all seven of their NCAA participants next season and only two of the seven (Hogen and Hiza) will be seniors next year.
- 30 -
