NCAA South/Southeast Regional Championships Results


The Emory women's cross country team captured first place out of 30 squads at the 2011 NCAA South/Southeast Regional Championships on Saturday and in the process earned an automatic berth to next Saturday's NCAA D-III Championships in Winneconne, Wisconsin.  Serving as host of this year's Regional Championships was Texas Lutheran University.

Emory, ranked 22^nd nationally, easily topped the field with 45 points, well ahead of runner-up Rhodes College's effort of 86 points.  Centre College (92 pts.) and Trinity (102 pts.) were third and fourth, respectively, while Christopher Newport rounded out the top five with 179 points.

Emory saw its top-five runners finish among the top 15 overall, spearheaded by senior Tess Gallegos who placed second  in the 197-runner field with a 6k time of 22:15, second only to Sophia Stone of Mary Baldwin who crossed the finish line first with an effort of 22:10.  Freshman Stephanie Crane turned in a memorable showing in her first Regional Championship with a mark of 23:09, good for eighth place.  Senior Sara Gelb (23:11) was right behind Crane in the ninth spot while junior Melanie Frank claimed 11^th place with a time of 23:15.  Senior Sabrina Jeppson closed out the squad's scorers with a 15^th-place performance after clocking a 23:24.  All of the Emory scorers earned all-region honors as did freshman Tamara Surtees who checked in with a 23^rd-place effort (24:06).

Today's championship performance was the first regional title for Emory since the 2007 campaign.  The Eagles had recorded three straight second-place finishes prior to today.