SACRAMENTO, Calif.— Kirstin Williams and
Megan Hodges led the Colorado Mesa University women's cross country team to a 23
rd place finish in the Mavericks' second all-time appearance as a team at the NCAA Division II National Championships on Saturday here at the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course.
The Mavericks were competing as a team for the first time in a decade after placing 22
nd in their debut appearance 2014 and finished one spot higher than their No. 24 national ranking coming into the meet, according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's National Poll.
Williams became just the third Maverick women's cross country runner to ever compete in multiple national championship meets, placing 79
th overall and 69
th amongst team scorers with a 6-kilometer time of 21 minutes, 55.3 seconds. She had qualified as an individual in 2023 and placed 61
st.
Meanwhile, Hodges was just six spots and 6.9 seconds behind, taking 85
th overall and 74
th amongst team scorers with a time of 22:02.2.
The Mavericks had a 5-woman pack time of just less than a minute (59.6 seconds) as they scored 562 points as a team to finish higher than 11 teams in the 34-team field.
Brooke Miller,
Kendall White and
Quin Gregg were all a part of the scoring contingent as Miller took 153
rd overall and 131
st amongst team representatives in 22:40.8. White was 165
th in 22:51.4 and scored 142 team points while Gregg was 169
th in 22:54.9. She scored 146 team points.
Autumn McQuitty, who finished 186
th in 23:06.6 and
Kate Linstedt, who took 196
th in 23:19.2 also ran for the Mavericks.
The Mavs' Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and the South Central Region opponents as a whole proved to be the best once again as Adams State won the team title for fifth time in the last five years with 61 points. The Grizzlies have now won 21 team titles.
West Texas A&M, a regional foe, was second with 127 while CSU Pueblo took third with 160 points. The RMAC's Colorado School of Mines and UCCS also finished fifth and seventh, respectively.
Grand Valley State finished fourth with 179 points and had the individual champion in Lauren Kiley, who finished in 20:28.5, winning by 2.2 seconds over Alaska Fairbanks' Kendall Kramer. The RMAC had two of the top five and five of the top 10 individual finishers, led by Mines' Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge, who took third and Hannah Hartwell of Fort Lewis, who finished fifth.
