Dunn Finishes Seventh to Lead West Chester at NCAA Regionals
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Fr., runner Diana Dunn (Media, Pa./Penncrest) captured seventh to lead West Chester to a 12th place finish at the NCAA Division II Regional Championship on Saturday morning at Slippery Rock University. West Chester's Dunn registered a final time of 23 minutes and 20 seconds, which was good enough to claim top 25 All-Region honors. The freshman maintained a 6:16 pace in the 6k event and has gotten stronger as the season has progressed. Dunn was the fastest freshman by 20 seconds and 58 seconds ahead of the third best freshman. She was the first individual non-qualifier for nationals. Coach Comstock viewed Dunn's performance as "nothing short of awesome." "The amount of improvement she's shown since high school last year is very rare. Today was a testament to her work ethic and love for running that shows in every training session and competition. The theme for the team this year has been to just try to get a little bit better every week." Crossing the finish line next for the Golden Rams in the regional was sophomore Amanda Kodis (Garnet Valley, Pa./Garnet Valley). She produced a time of 24:48, while earning 50th and improving 81 spots from last year's regional. Junior Julia Del Grosso (Springfield, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) ran 25:24 for 70th, while her teammate Monika Roschel (Liitz, Pa. / Warwick) managed 79th at 25:45. Roschel managed to improve 35 spots from a season ago. Afterwards, three Golden Rams finished right after one another. Senior Alie Smith (Shippensburg, Pa/Big Spring) provided a time of 26 minutes and 3 seconds for 85th. She improved 38 spots from last year's regional. Following Smith one second later for 86th was freshman Tara McLaughlin (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn). Sophomore Tina Lee (Upper Darby, Pa./ Upper Darby) placed 102nd at 26:47. Overall, the Golden Rams registered 291 points in the NCAA regional. In terms of improvement, the squad improved by 188 points since last year's regional meet. Comstock expressed his excitement stating how "dropping 188 points from last year's regional meet is a great step in the right direction for our program." This concludes the 2016 campaign for the women's cross country team.
