2023 NCAA DIII Women's Cross Country Championships

Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023 • Newville, Pa.  • 12 p.m. Big Spring High School

Live Results: Leone Timing  •  Live Video: NCAA.com

TICKET INFORMATION: For those heading to Newville for the championships, tickets are $20.00 for general admission and can be purchased here.
 
LIVE COVERAGE: For those that can't make it to Pennsylvania, the NCAA will be providing live stats and live video coverage. Fans can also follow Union Cross Country on Instagram and X for more content from the weekend.
 
READ MORE: Quick starts equal a big season finish as Union's Dacey makes NCAA field (Daily Gazette)

POSTSEASON HISTORY: Junior Cat Dacey is the first individual to qualify for the NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships in program history and will be Union's first representative at the national meet since 1981, when Union qualified for the inaugural NCAA Championship in 1981 by winning the NCAA Eastern Regional. The team finished sixth out of nine squads at the national championship, led by Inge Stockman '83 with a 40th-place finish out of 89 runners. Other Union runners at the race were Danielle Cherniak '83 (50th), Joan O'Connor '83 (51st), Sue Stopera '83 (68th), Janice Glidden '85 (69th) and Trish Moriarty '82 (80th).

HOW SHE GOT HERE: While the easiest way to qualify for the NCAA Championships is with a team selection, Dacey earned one of 70 individual selections by placing 10th at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships on Saturday in Westfield, Mass. The top-seven finishers in each region whose teams did not qualify for the national championships, and Dacey's finish placed her fourth among Mideast Region runners who did not qualify with a team.
 
RECORD-SETTING: Dacey is in the midst of arguably the most successful season in Union women's cross country history. Just this season she has posted the top-four 6K times and five of the top-six times in program history, capped by a program-record time of 21:34.8 at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships last weekend. In total, nine of the program's top-10 6K times have been run by the Garnet Chargers this season.
 
TOP-10 RESULTS: Dacey has had a fantastic season so far for the Garnet Chargers, placing in the top 10 in six of her seven meets. She took home top honors at the Trinity (Conn.) Invitational and second at the RPI Harvest Classic in back-to-back weeks in September, then took fifth at the Liberty League Championships in late October and 10th at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships last weekend. Her lowest finish of the season came at the Connecticut College Invitational, when she placed 17th out of 210 runners on October 14.

A YEAR OF FIRSTS: Dacey has already produced several program firsts this season. She earned the first All-Liberty League first-team honor in program history at the conference championships and also is the first Union women's runner to earn multiple All-Conference honors in her career. She also earned the program's first USTFCCCA All-Region honor with her 10th-place finish at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships.
 
SHE'D BE HONORED: Dacey was named the Liberty League Performer of the Week on October 2 after taking seventh place out of 375 runners in the White race at the Paul Short Run. It was the junior's first collegiate weekly honor.

THE FIELD: Dacey will be competing against approximately 290 fellow runners on Saturday. Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in the championship, 10 automatic qualifiers and 22 at-large selections, while 70 individuals were also selected to compete at the event. The top-40 student-athletes to finish the race earn USTFCCCA All-America honors.