NORTHAMPTON, Pa. --- Senior Meg Brockett captured the 2016 Landmark Conference Women's Cross Country individual championship and was named the Women's Runner of the Year as the Greyhounds hosted the 2016 Landmark Conference Championships at Bicentennial Park on Saturday.
Brockett ran a time of 21:10.55 in the 6,000-meter race, finishing first of the 85 runners to lead Moravian to a runner-up finish as a team. The time was her second fastest of the season and was a minute and 42 seconds faster than the previous top time in the first nine Landmark Conference Championships.
Brockett was one of three Greyhounds to earn Landmark All-Conference First Team honors for top seven finishes with senior Sarah Hughes finishing as the runner-up to Brockett in 21:51.66 and freshman Katie Mayer placing sixth in a season-best time of 22:20.60 to also earn Freshman of the Year honors.
The Greyhounds top 5 also included freshman Ashley Rohrer in 16th place with a season best time of 23:44.84 and freshman Carly Danoski in 20th at 23:52.87.
"This was only the second time we've had our front five under 24:00 in my time here, and our depth beyond our top five had really good days today too," stated Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "Up front Katie Mayer continued to impress, going for it early on by trying to stay in the top five and hanging on well when the pack broke up a little. Ashley Rohrer had her best race of the year and Carly was yet again her steady self, giving us three freshmen in the top 20. Meg and Sarah executed the plan well and had great races. I sometimes feel we almost take for granted how well they've run all season; we've just come to expect it from them. Overall we're satisfied, we really couldn't have done too much differently. We had three in the top six, and earned two additional individual awards (Runner of the Year, Freshman of the Year) so it was a good day for us."
Moravian scored 43 points, trailing only Elizabethtown College, which won the title with 28 points.
"We knew headed in that Elizabethtown had great depth and were the favorites," Baumann said. "We discussed what we needed to do in order to give ourselves a chance for a win, we positioned ourselves to do that as best we could, but Elizabethtown continued to show why they are a nationally ranked team today."
Freshman Jane Burgoyne was 25th overall with a season-best time of 24:19.98 while sophomore Alyssa Limbaugh ran 24:36.04 for the Blue and Grey. Senior Larissa Strycharz ran 24:42.45 in her final Landmark Conference race while freshman Rachel Mikols had a time of 25:49.99.
Freshman Shayne McNally turned in a season-best time of 26:01.02 while freshman Marlee Hornbaker had a 26:02.56. Junior Kirsten Lebo ran a season-best time of 26:34.64 for the Greyhounds while junior Meredith Colton posted a 26:43.46.
The Greyhounds will have a week off before running in the 2016 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional at DeSales University on Saturday, November 12.
