LOUISVILLE, KY - Graduate student Kaitlyn Stinson of the Utica College women's cross country team turned in a historic performance on Saturday as she competed at the NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championship hosted by Spaulding University.
Stinson turned in an impressive 168th place finish for the best individual finish at the NCAA Championships in the history of the Utica cross country programs. Stinson also had the previous best with a 180th place finish last year. That topped Ashton Villeneuve's 181st place finish in the program's debut at the national championship.
The Pioneers' top runner hit the line in a time of 23:20 on the six kilometer course at EP "Tom" Sawyer Park, which will also host the championship in 2021. Stinson averaged a mile time of 7:50.8. She ran a split of 3:42 through the one kilometer mark, and settled into a rhythm with an 11:14 split through three kilometers to stand 157th through the halfway mark. She clocked in at 15:29 through four kilometers, before running 7:50 over the final 2,000 meters.
With positions logged at the split points on the course, she ran as high as 126th at any of those points over the course of the event on a cold and muddy afternoon.
She was the only Empire 8 women's runner in the field of 277 runners. 32 teams were included in the team competition.
She was 2:26 behind leader Parley Hannan of Ithaca College, who ran a time of 20:53. Hannan won the race by 18 seconds. Johns Hopkins won the team title with 125 points with a late push over the final two kilometers to dethrone defending champion Washington-St. Louis. Geneseo was the top Atlantic Region team finisher at the meet.
Stinson wraps up her collegiate cross country career as the program's first and only two-time NCAA qualifier, and an all-region selection three years in a row. She is just the second qualifier overall in program history. She placed 17th at the regional championship for the Pioneers to punch her ticket into the national field.