The NSU women’s cross country team will head to Spokane, Wash. for the NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championship on Nov. 23, which will be held at the Plants Ferry Athletic Complex. This will be the second straight year that the women’s team will compete in nationals.
The women qualified for this year’s nationals with their third place finish out of 14 at the NCAA South Regional Championship at the Dover Trails in Dover, Fla. on Nov. 9.
Head Coach Bryan Hagopian said, “Qualifying for nationals was no surprise. We have been running great all season.. I’m confident our team will have a great showing in Spokane, Wash.”
The top three men’s teams and the top three women’s teams from the South Regional Championship all earned spots at nationals.
Leading the way for the Sharks was SSC Runner of the Year Alexandria Palm who finished second in the race and was the first among SSC runners to finish. Palm is the back-to-back SSC champion in cross country and was the first athlete in the women’s team to win the SSC individual award. Palm also holds the school record for both the 5K and 6K events.
The women’s team finished no lower than fourth in any of their six meets so far this season, which will wrap up at nationals where they will try to continue the streak and vie for the top spot.
Also making nationals this year is Long Tran from the men’s cross country team, who qualified as an individual runner.
Hagopian said, “He got off to a great start and got better as the race went along. We did not know he qualified until we saw the results after the race, so it was a nice surprise. The whole team was excited for Tran. It was great to see as a coach.”
Tran was also named to the All-SSC team, for the first time of his career, along with Palm and Peri Bowman. During his senior season, Tran emerged as one of the top performers for the men’s cross country team. He was one of two members of the men’s cross country team to finish in the top 10 of the SSC Cross Country Championship.
As part of the team last season, Tran helped the Sharks to both conference and regional titles. This was the first full season that Tran competed in after joining the team in the postseason late his junior year.
No distance is too far for the runners, especially to achieve a goal that was set at the beginning of the season. For the seniors on the team, this will be the last opportunity to run competitively on the collegiate level and it would be nice to end their career with a National Championship.
This is the final meet of the year, and the NSU women’s cross country team and Long Tran will look to finish strong.
