Ella Webster Earns NCAA Berth; Tigers Finish Sixth In Region

Norton, Ohio - The Wittenberg women's cross country team came into the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Region Championships with a full head of steam, coming off a second straight North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) team title earned two weeks earlier. While the high hopes for a first-ever NCAA Division III National Championships berth for the team were not realized, a sixth-place finish powered by several outstanding individual performances still marked another step forward for the program.

Calvin and DePauw tied for first place with 90 points apiece, followed by Hope with 113, John Carroll with 119, and Centre with 194. Wittenberg checked in with a sixth-place finish thanks to a team score of 205, and the Tigers will now await the NCAA Selection Show announcement that will include at-large selections to the national competition.

Even if the team doesn't earn an invitation to run in the final NCAA meet of the season, the Tigers are assured of individual representation after sophomore Ella Webster (Van Buren, Ohio/Van Buren) broke the 6K school record with a time of 20:54 to place sixth in a field of 269 runners. Webster(pictured below with men's NCAA qualifier Conor Kolka) becomes the fourth Wittenberg runner to qualify for nationals, joining Abi Gerstle (3x), Mary Pfeifer (3x), and Corin Turkovich (East Liverpool, Ohio/Beaver Local), who made it last year.

Junior Megan Keys (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) was Wittenberg's second qualifier with a time of 21:48 to finish 31st. She was followed by junior Sydney Khosla (Dayton, Ohio/Centerville) in 35th with a time of 21:54, sophomore Emma Hawk (Marion, Ohio/River Valley) in 55th with a time of 22:23, and freshman Maddi Clark (Mentor, Ohio/Mentor) in 78th with a time of 22:45. Webster, Keys, and Khosla all earned All-Great Lakes Region honors in recognition of their outstanding performances.