[Pcalumnixctrack] Providence College Women’s Cross Country Crowned BIG EAST Champions

[Laura A Nagel]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Saturday, October 31, 2015
Contact: Laura Nagel, 401-865-1245

Providence College Women’s Cross Country Crowned BIG EAST Champions
The Friars swept the top-3 spots and finished the race with seven women earning All-BIG EAST honors.

MASON, Ohio - The Providence College women’s cross country team claimed the 2015 BIG EAST Cross Country Championship title today (Oct. 31) in Mason, Ohio. The women swept the top-3 places and captured the women’s programs seventh BIG EAST title. Additionally, head coach Ray Treacy collected his 17th BIG EAST cross country team title.

Senior Sarah Collins (Basel, Switzerland) took the race out from the very beginning. After 1km into the race, Collins had a 20-meter lead and eventually slowed for the pack to catch up. At the 2km mark, Collins picked up the pace again, bringing one of the Georgetown women with her. It didn’t take long for the Hoya to fall off, giving Collins a considerable lead. At that point, she never looked back and cruised into the finish to claim the individual title in a time of 19:32.1.

Behind Collins, senior Lauren Mullins (Binghamton, N.Y.), junior Catarina Rocha (Peabody, Mass.) and sophomores Katie Lembo (Penfield, N.Y.) and Brianna Ilarda (Perth, Australia) sat in the lead pack for the first 2km of the race. After Collins picked up the pace at the 2km mark, Mullins, Lembo and Rocha split from the pack to chase down the two ahead. The three Friars ran together until the 4km mark, when Mullins and Lembo pulled away. The duo took second (19:47.4) and third-place (19:50.6), respectively, to give the Friars a top-3 sweep, while Rocha and Ilarda finished as the fourth and fifth Providence women in sixth (20:00.3) and 14th (20:16.6), respectively.

Senior Molly Keating (Rehoboth, Mass.) continued to look strong after her performance in Wisconsin two weeks ago. Keating held her spot in the top-25 for the majority of the race and then finished strong to place 19th (20:29.5) as the sixth Friar across the line.

Like Keating, junior Emily Bushey (Vernon, N.J.) looked strong over the last half of the race. Bushey sat about 10 spots behind Keating throughout most of the race and made her way up the field to finish 20th in a time of 20:31.8.

Rounding out the top-8 was sophomore Mackenzie Barry (Mendham, N.J.). Barry progressed through the field over the last 2km to finish 26th in a time of 20:46.0 over the 6km course.

The top-7 Friars were awarded their All-BIG EAST honors upon conclusion of the meet. The top-10 individuals in the race, including Collins, Mullins, Lembo and Rocha, each earned First-Team All-BIG EAST honors, while those that placed 11th through to 20th, including Ilarda, Keating and Bushey, each earned Second-Team All-BIG EAST honors.

“Obviously we expected to do really well today, but going 1-2-3 was a great achievement,” said Treacy. “I am delighted for Sarah, coming back to win the BIG EAST title after a year of not competing and it was a huge jump in performance for Lauren and Katie who were 10th and 14th last year at the meet. For Catarina, it was a very brave performance. She missed a week of training and we look forward to having her back at full strength for Regionals in two weeks. Overall, for our top-7 to make All-BIG EAST First and Second team’s just shows the tremendous depth that we have on the team this year.”

The Providence women will return to action on Friday, Nov. 13 at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass.

- Go Friars -




Laura Nagel
Sports Information Graduate Assistant
Providence College
1 Cunningham Square
Providence, R.I. 02918
(o) 401-865-1245
Online Portfolio<http://cargocollective.com/lauranagel>
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