Following their first podium finish at the England Championships since 2001, the University of Rhode Island women’s cross country team rounded out their season with a 12th place finish at the Atlantic 10 Championships on Saturday.
Led by frontrunner fourth-year Molly Sabia, who was the top finisher for the Rams, seven runners held scoring finishes for Rhode Island. Their 310 team points tied Virginia Commonwealth University, just two more than 11th-placed Fordham. The Rams also finished ahead of Saint Joseph’s and St. Bonaventure.
Despite falling just outside of their top-10 goal, URI Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick was pleased with her team’s effort, given the team was missing some of their top runners to injury, including third-year Sophia Piccone.
“In the sport of cross country you just need to have as much depth as you possibly can have,” Feit-Melnick said. “It’s a great group of women, and we always talk about trying to give 100% [no matter what]…Some of them are still really young and don’t really have the experience at championship level.”
Elsewhere, Loyola Chicago University topped the 15-team field with 65 team points to win the team title, just under 40 points behind second placed George Washington University. The University Richmond (122 points), Dayton University (143 points) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (145 points) rounded out the top five.
Hosted at the Elvin R. King Course in Cedarville, Ohio, the championship meet was held as a 6,000-meter race for the first time. Sabia led the Rams with a time of 22:24.8, finishing 41st overall in the field, in what she said was likely the final cross country race in her collegiate career.
“I felt great during the race, I had a really good race,” Sabia said. “I went into it with a positive mindset…I went into it more so wanting to have a great last cross country race, and I feel that that happened.”
Not far behind Sabia was fourth-year Hannah O’Connor, who’s second consecutive scoring finish saw her cross the finish line 55th overall in 2:46.5, her highest finish at the A-10 Championships. Third-year Erin Hurley was the next to finish less than a second later, coming in 58th at 2:47.4.
After a sizable gap in the field, four more finishers crossed the finish line in scoring positions for the Rams ranging from 81st to 108th place, creating a 67-place scoring pack. Fourth-year Sophia DiMuccio was the next to cross, and her time of 23:14.4 saw her finish fourth for the Rams and 81st overall in the field.
“I think that our pack was maybe a little more spread out this past weekend,” Feit-Melnick said. “Sometimes that happens when you have different people interchanging and running different spots.”
Rounding out the scorers on the day were fifth-year Daniella Napoli (23:22.7 – 89th overall), fourth-year Elise LePage (23:35.4 – 97th overall) and second-year Olivia Skapczynski (23:47.4 – 108th overall).
The Rams, who will not send any runners to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships in late November, are now focusing on the transition to the indoor track season, according to Feit-Melnick.
“I feel it’s in our best interest to get ready for the first indoor meet,” Feit-Melnick said. “Some of these women are truly mid-distance oriented people…I feel it’s in our best interest of our team just to get healthy and get ready for a great indoor season.”
The team is set to kick off their winter indoor slate on Dec. 2 in Boston.