NCAA Release | Championship Homepage
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Five teams and 10 individuals from the Centennial Conference have qualified for the 2021 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships, set for this Saturday, Nov. 20 in Louisville, Ky. In order to be eligible to participate in the championships, teams and individuals had to qualify in their respective NCAA regional competitions that were held last weekend.
On the women's side, three Centennial teams qualified for nationals for the 10th time in conference history. Defending national champion Johns Hopkins, Haverford and Dickinson will each represent the CC at the national meet. Hopkins and Haverford secured regional titles last weekend, while Dickinson secured one of 22 at-large spots. Individually, five CC runners earned spots in the field - Muhlenberg's Abby Dalton and Marielle Avola, Swarthmore's Nora Blodgett and Rose Teszler, and Ursinus' Rachel Conhoff.
On the men's side, Haverford earned an automatic bid by virtue of winning its regional meet, while Hopkins receive an at-large team bid. Five individuals secured spots in the field, including the Dickinson's trio of Christopher Scharf, Charles Scharf and Jacob Doherty Munro, and the Swarthmore duo of Aidan Cantine and Atticus Hempel.
Three CC runners claimed individual regional titles at last weekend's meets - Dickinson's Christopher Scharf (Mid-Atlantic) and Isabel Cardi (Mid-Atlantic), and Haverford's Izzy Miller (Metro). Cardi finished in third place at the 2019 NCAA championships, tied for the second-best individual finish in CC women's cross country history.
Spalding University and the Louisville Sports Commission are hosting the championship at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. The men’s race will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern, followed by the women’s race at noon Eastern.
Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in each championship. The top seven-person team automatically qualified from each of the 10 regions, for a total of 10 teams. Twenty-two additional teams were selected at-large. Seventy individuals, the first seven student-athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team, were selected to participate in each championship.