Ithaca Chases Eighth Empire 8 Women’s Cross Country Title
Ithaca College will defend its women’s cross country conference championship at the Empire 8 Cross Country Championships at Saratoga Springs on Sunday. The Bombers have won each of the first seven conference championships in women’s cross country. The race will be the first stand-alone cross country championship in Empire 8 history.
The Bombers, ranked sixth in the Atlantic Region, are coming off a second-place finish at the state championship where all seven of their runners posted season-best times. Junior Heidi Baumbach.a two-time all-conference first team performer, has been the team’s top runner this season, having earned Empire 8 Runner of the Week honors five times. Sophomore Jenn Randall won last year’s championship as a rookie.
Sophomore Megan Shanley of Ithaca ran to all-conference first-team honors last season, while seniors Catherine Ortiz, Elizabeth Schloss, and Danielle Sisti were all second-team all-conference honorees.
Senior Abby Aker earned first-team all-conference accolades in the 2009 championship for runner-up Rochester Institute of Technology. She is joined by sophomore Anna Guthrie, a second-team performer.
Sophomore Kelsey Ryan of Nazareth College has been named Empire 8 Runner of the Week twice this fall and placed first at the Nazareth Short-Course Invitational.
Junior Elisabeth Phillips-Jones was the top Alfred University finisher in the state meet and earned second-team all-conference honors in last year’s championship.
Sophomore Ashley Princiotta has been the top runner all season for Stevens Institute of Technology.
Junior Erika Gates of Hartwick College is coming off a top-10 performance. First-year runner Katie Day was named Empire 8 Runner of the Week earlier this fall and has been the top Utica College runner all season.