INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Moravian University junior Tara Smurla has qualified as an individual competitor in the 2024 NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships being hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Indiana on Saturday, November 23 while the Greyhounds' men's squad qualified as a team for the first time in program history.
Smurla, who will be making her second appearance in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, won the 2024 Metro Regional race with a personal best time of 21:40.80 on the 6,000-meter course at Stockton University to earn All-Region honors for the third consecutive year. Smurla will be one of three Landmark Conference runners at the NCAA Championships with Elizabethtown College's Kelty Oaster and Catholic's Kate Inglis also running.
Smurla is the 32nd Greyhound to run at the NCAA Championships and the 16th to race in the national championships at least twice. From 1993 to 2001, Moravian qualified as a team with seven student-athletes racing each year, and the Hounds finished third in the nation three times – 1993, 1995 and 2001 to go with top ten finishes in 1994, 1997 and 2000.
The Moravian men qualified as a team for the first time after receiving an automatic berth for taking first at the NCAA Division III Metro Regional on Saturday at Stockton. The Hounds, who are ranked 29th in the nation by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, scored 29 points to finish 32 points ahead of runner-up Rowan University, and the Blue & Grey are the only Metro Region team racing in the national championships.
The Greyhounds runners will include seniors Owen Nahf and Nathan Hajel, junior Bryan Kerchner, sophomore Gavin Hefferan and graduate students Cole Stanchina, Josh Mangini and Casey Frank.
Nahf, Hajel, Kerchner, Stanchina, Hefferan and Mangini all earned All-Region while Frank missed by just two spots. Moravian set five PRs in the 8,000-meter regional race with Nahf third in 24:52.0, Hajel fourth at 24:52.4, Kerchner sixth in 24:56.3, Stanchina seventh at 24:59.9 and Hefferan ninth in 25:06.4. Mangini took 28th in a time of 25:46.4 while Frank finished 37th in 26:02.0.
Hajel is the only male runner with NCAA Championship experience, having run as an individual last fall in the 2023 meet hosted by Dickinson College.
The top 35 finishers in the Division III Championships are recognized as All-Americans by the NCAA, and the United States Track and Field Association selects the top 15 for All-America honors.
The women's 2024 NCAA Division III Championship race will be run at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center and is slated to begin at 11:00 a.m. Eastern on Saturday with the men's national championship race to follow at 12:00 p.m. The races will be broadcast live on https://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2024/11/18, and live results will be available at https://results.leonetiming.com/XC.html?mid=4684.
