11/11/2004 - Women's Cross Country
Women's Cross Country to Take Part in NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Saturday
Sophomore Emily Castro placed third at the 2004 Patriot League Championship two weeks ago to earn first-team all-league honors. |
Annapolis, Md. - After a week off, the Navy women's cross country team will be back on the course Saturday as it takes part in the 2004 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional at the Penn State Blue-White Golf Course in University Park, Pa. The race is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
The field will include 35 schools from the Middle-Atlantic states. The top-two teams from each of the nine regional championships - the others being the Great Lakes, Midwest, Mountain, Northeast, South, South Central, Southeast and West - will automatically qualify for the 2004 NCAA Championship at Indiana State on November 22. In addition to those two schools, the top-four individuals from each region not on a qualifying team automatically advance to the finals.
Thirteen additional at-large teams and two at-large individuals will be selected by the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee Sunday after all the meets have been held. The at-large selections will be posted on the NCAA web sites (www.ncaasports.com and www.ncaa.org) by 7 p.m.
"We have been running well this season so I'm excited to see how the team does this weekend," head coach Karen Boyle said. "We've seen a lot of these teams already this year and we know how the course is set up."
The Mids competed on the Penn State course back on September 11 as they placed third out of 17 teams at the Spiked Shoe Invitational.
Navy was led by sophomore Emily Castro (Centennial, Colo.) that day, as she placed 11th out of 191 runners. Castro has been Navy's top runner in four of the five races she has competed in this season. Castro has finished in third place in her last three races, including two weeks ago at the Patriot League Championship to garner first-team all-conference honors. It marked the second time in as many seasons she was named to the conference's first team.
"Emily has been a constant for us this entire year," Boyle added. "She has set a strong example for the younger runners on this team and they look up to her."
Classmate Christine Taranto (Coraopolis, Pa.) has also been a steady performer for the Mids. Taranto also earned First-Team All-Patriot League recognition two weeks ago at the championship by placing fifth. Taranto has run in all six races this season and has finished in the top 10 in five of those. Her lone finish out of the top 10 was a 13th-place performance at the Spiked Shoe Invitational.
"Christine worked hard in the off season and it showed this season," Boyle said. "I'm very proud of her and what she has done this year."
Freshman Kyleigh Millhouse (Boiling Springs, Pa.) was Navy's other runner to earn recognition by the league, as she placed 11th at the conference championship to win the 2004 Patriot League Rookie-of-the-Year award. Millhouse, who was Navy's top runner at the Gulden Invitational with a seventh-place finish, has placed in the top 10 of the individual standings in four races this season.
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