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Nittany Lion Women's Cross Country Set to Compete at NCAA Championships

Nov. 19, 2015

Nov. 19, 2015

Saturday, November 21
12:00 pm ET - Women's 6K
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's cross country team is set to compete at the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday Nov. 21 in Louisville, Ky.

Hosted by the University of Louisville, the NCAA championships will take place at at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park. The women's 6,000-meter race will start at approximately 12:00 p.m. ET.

The Nittany Lion women, who won the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, enter Saturday's championships ranked as the No. 9 team in the nation. With the Mid-Atlantic Regional championship, Penn State advanced to the NCAA championships for the sixth-time in the last seven years and 19th-time since 1981. The Nittany Lions have recorded five top-10 finishes in their NCAA history and more recently placed 14th as a team in 2012.

Last Time Out

Led by redshirt freshman Tessa Barrett, the Penn State women's cross country team captured their first Mid-Atlantic Regional title Nov. 13 in Princeton, N.J. since they hosted the event in 2012.

Penn State placed five runners inside the top-25, defeating Georgetown, and regional host Princeton by a score of 60-75-80, respectively.

Tessa Barrett (Waverly, Pa.), who redshirted the 2014 season, led the Nittany Lions through the finish line in her first Mid-Atlantic Regional recording a fourth-place finish in a time of 21:02.2.

Following Barrett were senior Tori Gerlach (Perkasie, Pa.) close behind in sixth-place (21:09.9), followed by Elizabeth Chikotas (Hellertown, Pa.) in 10th-place (21:15.4), Julie Kocjancic (Pittsburgh, Pa.) in 19th-place (21:29.4), and Jillian Hunsberger (Pittsburgh, Pa.) rounding out scoring in 21st-place with a time of 21:32.7.

Running as the No. 6 and No.7 for Penn State were Greta Lindsley (Lancaster, Pa.) in 28th-place (21:48.4) and Stephanie Aldrich (West Chester, Pa.) in 49th-place (22:11.3.)

For their efforts at the Mid-Atlantic Regional, Barrett, Gerlach, Chikotas, Kocjancic, and Hunsberger were named All-Region honors following the meet.

Last Year at the NCAA Championships

Sophomore Jillian Hunsberger competed at the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championships last year at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind.

Hunsberger, making her NCAA Cross Country Championships debut, completed the 6,000-meter course in a time of 21 minutes, 38.9 seconds to finish 161st out of 253 runners as a true freshman.

USTFCCCA Rankings
The women's team is currently ranked No. 9 in the nation by the USTFCCCA.

For more on Nittany Lion cross country, log onto www.GoPSUsports.com or follow the team on Twitter @PennStateTFXC.