EARLYSVILLE, Va.—Villanova junior Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) finished off the Fall season on a strong note Saturday morning with a 71^st place individual finish at the 2023 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. Sigfstead recorded a time of 20:28.7 over 6,000 meters at Panorama Farms in her second career race at the national meet. She moved up 22 spots from where she placed in her NCAA Championships debut two years ago. Sigfstead and junior Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.) were each individual qualifiers for Saturday's meet coming out of the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional last week.
 
Saturday's finish was the latest strong result in a season full of them for Sigfstead, who won her first career Mid-Atlantic regional title a week ago with a blistering 6K time of 19:35.5. Villanova competed on the national championship course at Panorama Farms earlier this season at the XC-23 Pre-Nationals meet and, in Saturday's championship race, Sigfstead went out near the lead for the first kilometer. She settled into the middle of the pack from there and was in the top third of the field at the finish line.
 
As a first year collegian in 2021, Sigfstead led three Wildcats who were top-100 national finishers with a 93^rd place showing at the NCAA Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. She redshirted the 2022 cross county and 2023 indoor campaigns before returning to win a BIG EAST outdoor title in the 10,000 meters and carry that momentum into this Fall.
 
Sigfstead was Villanova's top finisher in all five of her starts during the season. She was the individual champion at the Main Line Invitational in her season debut and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional last week to go along with top-10 finishes at Pre-NCAAs and the BIG EAST Championships. She earned her second career all-conference honor with first team All-BIG EAST recognition.
 
Villanova has had either individual qualifiers or earned a team berth to the NCAA Championships in five of the last six seasons. In that stretch of time, Sigfstead owns the two fastest times at the NCAA Championships by any of the Wildcats competitors at the meet. She ran 20:27.5 in her debut at the 2021 championships before posting the mark of 20:28.7 in Saturday's race.