TOWSON, Md. – Junior Claire Del Casale of Moravian College has been named the Landmark Conference Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week after her efforts on the short course at the Dickinson College Long/Short Invitational on Saturday.

Del Casale finished in 12th place out of 144 harriers with a time of 15:15.7 on the 4,000-meter course. Her time was the second fastest time in the conference so far this season. Reynah Spence of Shippensburg won the race with a time of 14:40.4. Del Casale finished behind six Shippensburg runners, who compete in NCAA Division II.

"She got out a little too quickly, running under 1:20 for her first 400 meters, or else I think she could have run even faster," said head cross country coach Jesse Baumann. "We were shooting for Claire to run about 15:20, which we thought could set her up to run sub-23:00 in the 6K when we get to Princeton and Regionals later in the year." 

The junior's efforts helped the Greyhounds take sixth place out of 19 teams at the event. Moravian finished with a three-runner team score of 57, while Shippensburg won the team competition on the short course with 10 points.

"Claire ended up running a few seconds faster than former teammate Cadee Rockwell ran at this race two years ago, so it's a really encouraging indicator for what Claire can accomplish the rest of the season," Baumann said.

The Greyhounds are scheduled to return to action on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh University on the Goodman Campus in Bethlehem.