Geneseo State Upsets Defending Champion Williams
at NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championships

DELAWARE, Ohio -- Led by freshman Liz Montgomery, who finished third among individuals, Geneseo (N.Y.) State placed three runners among the top 20 team scorers and five in the top 30 team scorers to defeat defending champion Williams for the team title by a score of 87-107 at the NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country championships on Saturday, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and Dornoch Golf Club.

"This is unreal," Montgomery said. "We've been dreaming of this all season and it happened for us. It was a total team effort, and all of those people (in the stands) were part of the team. Our team motto is 'Believe' and I think we all really believed we could do it."

After Montgomery, the Blue Devils had Marta Scott finish in 24th place, Shannon Griggs in 30th place, Renne Catalano in 47th place and Christiana Martin in 56th place to finish off a jump from a 13th-place finish in last year's NCAA Division III meet to the 2005 national championship trophy.

"We're thrilled," said Geneseo head coach Mike Woods. "This is our college's first team championship ever. The girls have run together and worked together as a team so hard. There are a lot of stories here. Liz made a huge impact, and we knew we were getting a good girl, but Shannon Griggs was hurt two years and was never able to realize her potential, and Christiana Martin was overseas for a year."

Williams had three runners among the top 10 team scorers, but was not able to defend its crown. Caroline Cretti finished sixth overall, Elizabeth Gleason was 14th and Michelle Rorke placed 17th to lead the Ephs, with Mallory Harlin finishing 28th and Rebecca Davies rounding out the Williams scoring with a 116th-place finish.

Washington (Mo.) finished in third place with 132 points and Wisconsin-LaCrosse was fourth with 169 points.

Women's Team Results

Women's Individual Results

Individual honors went to Hailey Harren of Gustavus Adolphus, who won the race by a margin of almost 8 seconds over runner-up Julia Rudd of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. Montgomery of Geneseo was third, Allison Busby of SUNY-Plattsburgh was fourth and Amanda Kuca of Concordia (Wis.) finished fifth.

The race was run over a soft, hilly course in sunny, 50-degree weather that featured a steady breeze.



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