Nov. 10, 2007

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Senior Arwyn Becker (Vail, Colo.) paced the Navy women's cross country team to a 10th-place finish among the field of 28 teams at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championship Saturday morning at Lehigh's Goodman Campus course on the campus of Lehigh University. Navy, who was unranked in the region at the beginning of the season, entered the competition tied for eighth in the region by the U.S. Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association, alongside Patriot League rival Bucknell.

Anchored by a second-place finish by sophomore Liz Costello, Princeton captured the team title with 56 points. Two Tigers finished among the top five, while another three were among the top 20. West Virginia held off Georgetown by two points, 77-79, to take second and join Princeton in earning an automatic bid to the 2007 NCAA Championship at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 19. Three WVU runners finished among the top 10, while Georgetown also had three runners finish among the top 10, including junior Melissa Gerelli who took the individual crown in a time of 19:50.

Bucknell finished 18 points ahead of Navy (314-332) in fourth, while the Midshipmen owned a 15-point advantage over Duquesne, who placed 11th.

Navy has produced three consecutive top-10 performances in NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championships held at Goodman Campus. Meanwhile, the Mids improved upon their 11th-place finish a year ago among 32 competitors.

All-Patriot League runners Becker and Lexa Gass (Crescent, Pa.) were among Navy's top finishers in the regional. Becker led the way with a 51st-place finish, covering the course in 21:55, her third-fastest time of the fall. Meanwhile, Gass, a sophomore, turned in a 66th-place mark of 22:12. Sophomore Erica Ziel (Saginaw, Mich.) put together back-to-back solid efforts at the Patriot League Championship and at the NCAA regional, placing 60th with a time of 22:04. Rounding out action for the Midshipmen were senior Kyleigh Millhouse (Boiling Springs, Pa.) in 7th (22:24), junior Maureen Dooley (Durham, Conn.) in 79th (22:26), sophomore Amy Watson (Hampstead, Md.) in 81st (22:29) and junior Katherine Wirtz (Willoughby Hills, Ohio) in 93rd (22:45).

Thirteen additional at-large teams and two individual at-large runners will be selected by the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Track & Field Committee on Sunday night at 7:00 pm.

NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Team Standings (top 10 out of 28)
1 - Princeton        56
2 - West Virginia    77
3 - Georgetown       79
4 - Penn State       93
5 - Villanova       115
6 - Penn            185
7 - La Salle        248
8 - Maryland        275
9 - Bucknell        314
10 - Navy           332