CARMEL, Ind.—Led by BIG EAST individual champion
Caroline Alcorta (Springfield, Va.) and a dominant effort throughout the entire lineup, Villanova cruised to its record 16
th conference title and its second in as many years at the BIG EAST Championships on Saturday morning. Alcorta is the 17
th individual champion for the Wildcats, who placed five runners in the top seven finishing spots and won with a historic team score of 21 points.
Alcorta covered the 6000 meter course at Northview Church in 20:12.4 and finished with a winning margin of four seconds over runner-up and teammate
Rachel McArthur (Bristow, Va.) in the field of 85 runners. Villanova recorded the largest margin of victory (52 points) in the 37-year history of the BIG EAST meet. Its team score of 21 points is the fourth-lowest in meet history and the Wildcats easily outkicked runner-up Georgetown (73 points) and the rest of the 10-team field.
"For us as a team we were feeling really confident going into it and we were hoping to kind of make a statement going into the next few weeks, especially going into NCAAs," Alcorta said of the Villanova finish. "It means everything to me. I've never been on a team that's this close, this driven and that has this kind of history. Coming to practice every day is a blessing in itself. I know that we're here to make something special happen."
The depth of the Villanova lineup was staggering, as the Wildcats had six of the top eight finishers and had a program record nine runners earn All-BIG EAST honors for finishing in the top 20 overall. The trio of senior
Nicole Hutchinson (West Vancouver, B.C.), freshman
Taryn O'Neill (Lake Country, B.C.) and freshman
Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) occupied the fifth through seventh finishing spots to account for the other Wildcats scorers behind Alcorta and McArthur at the top of the race.
"Exactly according to plan" Villanova head coach
Gina Procaccio said of how the race unfolded. "The goal was to get up there and stay up front, compete tough and beat as many people as we could. It was more about just trying to get our top five into the top 10. Those were lofty goals because there were some great runners there from Georgetown and Providence, but [five in the top 10] was just something that was kind of there. Realistically I wanted everybody to have a great race and to win the team title."
Junior
Ann Campbell (Mission Hills, Kan.) came in eighth and was the sixth Villanova runner in the top 10. She was followed by freshman
Reilly Siebert (Syosset, N.Y.), senior
Bella Burda (Pleasant Valley, N.Y.) and sophomore
Lauren Ryan (South Yarra, Australia), who came in 13
th, 16
th and 20
th. Junior
Sammy Bockoven (Hudson, Ohio) rounded out the Wildcats lineup in 38
th place.
The winning time of 20:12.4 for Alcorta set a new course record at the Northview Church site. Alcorta, McArthur and Hutchinson set a quick pace at the start of the race, while Alcorta and McArthur broke away from the pack after the 3000 meter mark. McArthur's runner-up time was 20:16.5.
Villanova will next compete at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on November 9 at Penn State, and has its sights on qualifying for the NCAA Championships in Madison, Wis. one week later.
"They were going to go out and run hard today no matter the conditions and hopefully get it done," Procaccio said of Saturday's conference championship race. "That's been the goal along. We have talked about running our best race on November 17 [at NCAAs]. The conference race is a great stepping stone for that. This is a meet where we have to run hard, compete tough and beat as many people as we can. That will help set us up for the national meet in three weeks."
