Before moving on to the upcoming Nike Cross Regionals Northeast where several of our teams and athletes will be at this weekend in New York, we’d like to recognize a handful of star alums that were competing at their respective NCAA regional meets this past weekend.
At the Division 1 regionals on Friday, former Hendricken all-stater Luke Henseler, a graduate student at Butler, finished 50th overall in the Great Lakes Region with a PR of 30 minutes, 29.4 seconds for the 10K distance. Henseler was the fifth runner for Butler, which earned an at-large bid to Saturday’s NCAA Championships at Thomas Zimmer Championship X-C Course in Madison, Wisconsin. The ex-Hawk, who ran for Pittsburgh as an undergraduate, has endured a strong season this fall. He ran an 8K best of 23:59.3 at the Sean Earl Loyola Invitational on Oct. 4 and was 14th (24:19.1) at the Big East Championships two weeks prior to the NCAA regionals.
In the Southeastern Region, Virginia senior Margot Appleton, who starred at Portsmouth Abbey, was fifth overall with a 6K time of 20:32.1. Finishing 16th overall was La Salle Academy grad and current Furman junior, Kaylie Armitage, who crossed the line in 21:02.6. For Appleton, a three-time track All American, she qualified for the women’s race at the nationals. She was competing in just her second race of the season due to an injury early in her fall campaign.
Former Moses Brown great Sophia Gorriaran, a sophomore at Harvard University, will also be heading to the Nationals. She was the Crimsons’ fifth runner in the Northeast Region, placing 60th overall in 21:15.0. Harvard qualified at-large as a team, taking fourth in the meet with 144 points.
In the Div. 3 regionals, Henry Dennen (Cumberland) and Erin von Housen (Chariho Regional) earned qualifying spots the Saturday’s nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., based on their team finishes. Dennen, a junior at Amherst, was 28th in the Mideast Region meet this past Saturday where he was timed in 25:28.4 for the 8K course. As a team, Amherst was fifth. In the same meet, von Housen, a freshman at RPI, was third for her team and 17th overall with a near best of 21:56.4. RPI was second as a team.
Former Coventry standout Haley Oliver, a junior at Rhode Island College, qualified as an individual. She was 20th at the Mideast Region meet with a time of 21:58.5. In her previous two meets, she was triumphant at the Little East Championships (Nov. 2) and the Western New England University Invitational (Oct. 19).
