NAIA Women's XC National Championship includes Point Park, OCU and RSC individuals
NAIA Women's XC National Championship includes Point Park, OCU and RSC individuals
MEET INFO l NAIA QUALIFIERS l LIVE RESULTS l NAIA NETWORK l NAIA CROSS COUNTRY
VANCOUVER, Wash. -- The River States Conference will be well-represented at the NAIA Women's Cross Country National Championship meet on Nov. 18 in Vancouver, Wash. The RSC will have two full teams and also six individuals representing four other schools from the conference.
Point Park (Pa.) University heads the conference representatives as RSC champion. The Pioneers have been "receiving votes" in the NAIA Top 25 Poll at various points this year and also feature one of the top runners in the nation with junior Anna Shields, one of five all-conference runners on the team. The Pioneers are at nationals as a team for the second time in their history and the second time in three years.
Ohio Christian University qualified for nationals as a team as RSC runner-up. The Trailblazers are making their first team appearance at nationals in this their third year in the NAIA and the second year in which they are eligible for NAIA postseason. Ariel Young and Raven Arrellano are sisters, and they provide two talented runners to lead OCU.
There were six individual qualifiers from the RSC, a group that was made up of the top six finishers at the conference meet not from Point Park or OCU. Another stipulation was that NAIA individual qualifers from the conference had to finish in the top 20 of the RSC meet. This group had no problem with that, and the six runners are spread across four schools.
IU Kokomo has Taryn Thor and Brittany Sloan as two all-conference first teamers competing at NAIAs. Likewise, Rio Grande has two first-team all-conference runners going with Lucy Williams and Maggie Dellinger. Rounding out the conference individuals are Asbury's Allison Lyon and IU East's Ashley Toschlog.
The NAIA National Championship is being held at the Fort Vancouver Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash. The host of the meet is the Cascade Collegiate Conference. The women's 5,000-meter race is at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m. ET. Live results will be available at OnlineResults.com. Video will be available for the awards ceremony following the race at NAIANetwork.com