LANSING, Mich. – The No. 12-ranked St. Olaf College women's cross country team posted its top finish at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships since 2012 with an eighth-place showing at Forest Akers Golf Course on Saturday.
Led by an All-America finish by senior
Christine Albrecht, St. Olaf took eighth in the 32-team field with a total of 256 points for its highest national finish since also placing eighth in 2012 and the 12th top-10 team finish in program history. The last time the Oles placed better than eighth was a fourth-place performance in 1999.
The race was contested in feel-like temperatures in the single digits with winds around 25 miles per hour. The Oles were making their 27th appearance at the national meet (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022) and improved five places from their 13th-place showing last season.
St. Olaf's eighth-place performance was the highest finish by a team that entered the national meet ranked outside the top 10 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll. The Oles placed ahead of four teams ranked ahead of them in the latest national poll: No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scrips, No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer, No. 10 Williams, and No. 11 UW-La Crosse.
Albrecht led the way for St. Olaf with a 27th-place finish (22:36.3) to post the top finish by an Ole at the national meet since Piper Bain '16 was 19th in 2015. Albrecht was joined in the top-50 runners by junior
Bella Call in 50th place (22:55.1), which marked an improvement of 77 places from a year ago.
Sophomore
Alison Bode also made a significant rise up the leaderboard by crossing the line in 66th place (23:05.9) after finishing 243rd last season. In their first NCAA Championships, junior
Katie Gebert and first year
Lauren Walda made it five Oles in the top 100 by coming in 82nd (23:14.2) and 87th (23:16.5), respectively.
Junior
Julia Everest and sophomore
Sofia Carlson also competed in the meet for the Oles, placing 126th (23:37.1) and 224th (24:20.1), respectively.
St. Olaf was in the top 10 teams at all five timing intervals, sitting seventh at one mile, and ninth at two miles, 3.8 kilometers, and five kilometers, before moving up to eighth over the final kilometer. Albrecht, Call, and Bode all moved up double-digit places over the last kilometer of the race to lock up the top-10 finish for the Oles.
