BETHLEHEM, Pa.—Villanova's strong front three of senior
Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.), junior
Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) and freshman
Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) were each among the top 10 overall finishers in the women's 6,000 meter race at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday afternoon. The trio was separated by less than six seconds at the finish line and the Wildcats came in third out of 27 teams at the regional meet with a team score of 105 points.
Olivere ran the 6K race on the Goodman Campus Course at Lehigh in 20:25.3 and finished fourth overall, while Smith came in eighth (20:30.4) and Sigfstead was one spot behind her in ninth place (20:31.0). This is the ninth time since the current NCAA regional format began in 2000 that Villanova has had at least three of the top 10 runners at the Mid-Atlantic meet. Olivere, Smith and Sigfstead each received medals to earn Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors for their top-25 finishes.
The fourth and fifth scoring runners for the Wildcats were junior
Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) and graduate student
McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.) who placed in the top 50 in the field of nearly 200 runners from 27 schools that make up the Mid-Atlantic Region. Helwigh came in 38
th with a time of 21:32.6 and placed 22 spots higher than where she finished in her only previous regional race as a freshman two years ago. Keegan finished 46
th in 21:44.8 and similarly came in 18 spots ahead of her previous top finish at the Mid-Atlantic meet.
Five teams stayed in contention for most of the race and Villanova trended in the right direction the closer the runners got to the finish line. Unofficial splits at the first and second mile markers had the Wildcats in fifth place in the team standings initially and in fourth place towards the middle of the race. Villanova (105 points) eventually surged to third place behind Georgetown (43) and West Virginia (67), while Princeton (122) and Penn State (159) followed the Wildcats in the competitive top five. The five teams accounted for 16 of the 25 all-region honorees at the awards ceremony which followed the races.
Villanova has had a total of 84 all-region performers since 2000 and has finished in the top three of the team standings in 17 of the 21 years that the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional has been held. The season to date for the Wildcats has been a successful one for a remarkably young team which features 15 runners on a roster of 17 student-athletes who are in their first or second year of collegiate cross country eligibility.
Freshman
Emily Robinson (Rogers, Ark.) and sophomore
Elizabeth Vaughn (Dayton, Ohio) rounded out the Villanova lineup. Robinson finished 58
th and crossed the finish line in 22:02.4 while Vaughn was 73
rd and recorded a time of 22:20.6.
There are nine regional meets around the country and the top two teams from each region earn automatic berths to the NCAA Championships, while 13 other teams will be selected for at-large bids to the national meet. In addition, the top four individuals at each regional meet who are not on a team that qualifies for the NCAA Championships will be chosen to compete as individuals at the national meet.
The complete field of teams and individuals for the NCAA Championships will be announced in a live selection show on NCAA.com on Saturday at 5 p.m. A link to the selection show will appear on the front of the website when the show goes live.
