BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Moravian College women's cross country team was hosted by Muhlenberg College in the 2013 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional meet on Saturday morning at Lehigh University's Goodman Campus, but it felt more like a home meet as the Greyhounds topped the Mules in a Matte Award battle and finished an impressive 11th out of 52 teams in the region.
A significant number of the Hounds' harriers were familiar with the course, located just miles away from Moravian's campus. Junior Claire Del Casale took comfort in the familiar setting as she led her team to a fantastic finish, five places ahead of rival Muhlenberg to give the Greyhounds a 5-2 lead in the Matte Award standings.
Del Casale finished 27th overall out of 358 runners on Saturday to garner All-Region honors, awarded to the top 35 in the regional meet. Her time of 22:13 beat her personal record by 49 seconds. The Greyhounds' top runner was right on the bubble for qualifying for nationals, but even if Elizabethtown College qualifies as a team, Del Casale would be only one position away from clinching a berth in the big meet.
Del Casale's time on Saturday went down as the 15th fastest time in Moravian women's cross country history.
"I felt good," Del Casale said. "I've worked out on this course all season, so I knew all the ups-and-downs and when exactly to push through. I used that to my advantage."
The meet ended with the temperatures reading an unseasonable 61 degrees, a very hot race for this stage in the cross country season. Yet, in one of the biggest races of the year, the DIII women gave it their all and many could barely stand after crossing the finish line. Del Casale was not one of those women, but that kind of passionate display motivated her final 20 meters.
"I was really tired at the end," the junior harrier said. "I saw all these girls ahead of me finishing strong, and I knew I had to go as hard as I possibly could. I gave it my all, and that's the mentality of a lot of these girls."
Del Casale, donning a mild sweat and an ear-to-ear smile at the end of the race, admitted the happiness stemmed from watching her teammates finish strong after her. Del Casale was one of five Greyhounds to notch personal records at Lehigh on Saturday.
Junior Emily Lambright finished in a PR 23:09 in 66th place, taking more than a minute off her best career time. Freshman Meg Brockett also turned in a PR with a 98th place finish in 23:37, approximately 1:30 faster than her best time during her rookie campaign. Freshman Erin Love (23:40) and junior Devon Bedell (24:05) also turned in personal bests on the Goodman Campus course.
"We were shooting for top 10," said head coach Jesse Baumann. "Some of the personal times were phenomenal. One goal of this season was to get five girls under 24 minutes, and we were five seconds away from that. We're ecstatic about that in a very fast field."
Freshmen Larissa Strycharz (25:17) and Sarah Hughes (25:59) rounded out the Moravian scorers, which helped the sub-headline of topping rival Muhlenberg in the regional race.
"They were very aware of the Matte Award today," Baumann said. "It was an added storyline because one of Claire's rivals from Muhlenberg, Nicole Cronin, qualified for nationals, so they got one back on us. But it's excellent that we helped our school take a nice lead against Muhlenberg."
Del Casale is still playing the waiting game, however. The NCAA accepts the top two teams from every region, and additionally doles out 16 at-large bids. With a strong Mideast regional field, the Greyhound junior will find out on Monday if more teams from her region will be selected. If that is the case, those selected teams will have their names removed from the overall standings from today's race, and Del Casale will have a chance to qualify as one of seven harriers to go to nationals.
