NEW ORLEANS—Sophomore Rachel McArthur (Bristow, Va.) was chosen as the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Athlete of the Year and head coach Gina Procaccio was named the Women's Coach of the Year in an announcement made by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Tuesday afternoon.  The awards were voted on by the region's head coaches following the NCAA regional meets that took place last week. 
 
McArthur was the individual champion at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional while helping Villanova win the team title and an automatic bid to this week's NCAA Championships.  She was part of a dominant Wildcats performance at the meet, where Villanova had each of its top six runners earn all-region recognition. 
 
Coming off an appearance at the IAAF World U20 Championships over the summer, McArthur has built upon her strong freshman campaign from a year ago.  She had a winning margin of six seconds at the regional meet last week and covered the 6,000 meter course at Penn State in 21:02.2.  This is the second straight year that she has been an all-region performer.  McArthur also was the runner-up at the BIG EAST Championships last month, where her time of 20:16.5 was a personal best for a 6K cross country race. 
 
In her season debut earlier in the year, McArthur came in 29^th out of more than 200 runners at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational.  That meet featured 15 nationally-ranked squads, including, seven of the top 10 teams in the USTFCCCA rankings at the time of the meet.  The same course is hosting the NCAA Championships this week. 
 
Procaccio is the Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year for the seventh time, including the fifth time during cross country season.  Villanova has appeared in the top 10 of every national poll this season and sits at No. 8 entering the NCAA meet this week.  The team's accomplishments to date include winning the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional title for the fifth time while also capturing the BIG EAST crown for the record 16^th time.  Those championships were bolstered by the performances of nine All-BIG EAST selections and six Mid-Atlantic All-Region honorees. 
 
A balanced Wildcats lineup has led the team to first place finishes at four of the first five meets of the season, with victories at the Main Line Invitational and the Princeton Invitational preceding the conference and regional titles.  Villanova has now won four consecutive BIG EAST crowns, with this year's cross country championship following a "triple crown" for the 2017-18 academic year in which the Wildcats won titles in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. 
 
This is the 10^th time since 2000 that Villanova has produced the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Athlete of the Year in cross country, while Procaccio is the region's Coach of the Year for the fifth time in that span.  She was also the Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year indoors and outdoors during the 2014-15 season.
 
In addition to the top athlete and coach awards, Villanova had a total of six Mid-Atlantic All-Region selections.  McArthur was joined by seniors Caroline Alcorta (Springfield, Va.) and Nicole Hutchinson (West Vancouver, B.C.), along with the freshman trio of Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.), Taryn O'Neill (Lake Country, B.C.) and Reilly Siebert (Syosset, N.Y.).  This is the second straight year and the fourth time overall since 2000 that the Wildcats have had at least six all-region performers. 
 
Villanova will make its 30^th appearance all-time at the NCAA Championships this week.  The national meet takes place on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wis. and the women's race goes off at 10:45 a.m. (11:45 a.m. Eastern time) on Saturday morning.  Live action from the NCAA meet can be seen on Flotrack.