Champagne, Murdock Lead Wildcats To Second Straight New England Championship

Saturday, October 7

Boston, Mass.

11 AM

University of New Hampshire

New England Championships

The Wildcats win the New England Cross Country Championships for the 2nd Straight Year

Photo by: UNH Athletic Communications

Champagne, Murdock Lead Wildcats To Second Straight New England Championship

10/7/2017 2:54:00 PM | Women's Cross Country

BOSTON, Mass. – For the second straight year, the University of New Hampshire women's cross country team has won the New England Cross Country Championship, beating out 27 other teams as they had two runners in the top 10, and five in the top 35.

Sophomore Meg Champagne (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) was UNH's top finisher, improving on her ninth place finish last season, finishing fourth overall with a time of 18:04.0. Also in the top 10 was junior Shannon Murdock (Exeter, N.H.), who finished 10th with a time of 18:20.6. Champagne and Murdock ran as a pair for the first two miles of the race. Champagne began to pull away after that and cement her top-5 finish. Champagne was the only UNH runner in this race who also competed in the 2016 Championships' varsity race.

The next pairing was the duo of Alyson Messina (Plymouth, Mass.) and Riley Gilmore (Haverhill, Mass.) who ran very close together and finished 25th and 27th respectively. Messina finished with a time of 18:40.4, and Gilmore finished with a time of 18:42.5. Rounding out the top five for UNH was Angelyn Masters (Bangor, Maine) who finished in 35th in 18:50.9.

Altogether the Wildcats tallied 101 points, earning them a first place spot in the team score column for the second straight season. Boston College came in second place with 119 points, and MIT finished third with 131 points. The overall race winner was Heather MacLean from UMass Amherst, finishing fifth overall with 191 points.

EVENT INFO
Date: Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017
Location: Franklin Park, Boston
Distance: Women's race, 5K

NEXT UP
The Wildcats are back in action Saturday, October 14 in Louisville, Ky. as they gear up for championship season and participate in the pre-national meet.

RANKED IN THE REGION
The Wildcats have moved up to #7 in the Northeast Regional rankings after their strong showing at the Coast-to-Coast invitational.

REPEAT SUCCESS
UNH has won four of the last five New England Championships; 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017.

FROM THE COACH:
"I'm very happy with today's performance. We only had one returning runner from last year, so this race was a whole new cast of characters for the New England scene. I'm really excited this team won. Our kids committed over the summer and the fall to work hard and improve, and today it showed. We ran a very good team race, running in pairs and closer together. Meg and Shannon were together for the first two miles, then Meg began to pull away; Alyson and Riley ran in a very tight pair to finish in the top 30, and Angie Masters ran probably the best race of her life to finish strong in 35th. It all comes down to how well the team as a whole does; You can't win a race without all five runners doing their job."
--Coach Robert Hoppler

For the most up-to-date information on the women's cross country team, visit UNHWildcats.com.