Murdock Leads ‘Cats to NEICAAA Championship

Saturday, October 12

Jamaica Plain, Mass.

University of New Hampshire

New England Championships

From left to right: Coach Robert Hoppler, Elisabeth Danis, Meg Champagne, Shannon Murdock, Cayla Barretto, Caroline Mahoney, Nicole Yeomans, Madeline Quigley

10/12/2019 7:00:00 PM | Women's Cross Country

Results

Wildcats win their fifth New England cross country championship in seven seasons.

JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass. – University of New Hampshire fifth year senior Shannon Murdock (Exeter, N.H.) finished first overall leading the women's cross country team to a first place finish in the New England Inter-Collegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) cross country championship.

Murdock won the 5k with a time of 17:36.7, a new personal best. Murdock's win was the first individual New England cross country championship win for UNH since Elinor Purrier '18, who won it in 2014. It's Murdock's second career NEICAAA championship, winning the 1500 meter run in 2017 in outdoor track.

The win is the Wildcats' fifth New England championship in seven seasons; their previous championships came in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017.

Two other Wildcats finished in the top 10 to help the Wildcats' team score stay low at 130 points; senior Meg Champagne (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) finished third overall with a time of 17:54.7, and junior Elisabeth Danis (Nottingham, N.H.) took fifth at 17:58.1, a few seconds off her career best, but her fastest 5k time as a Wildcat.

New Hampshire's 63 points just edged out Dartmouth's 65 points to secure the first place in the team standings.

MEET RESULTS:
Other scoring Wildcats included:

The fourth Wildcat across the finish line was junior Caroline Mahoney (Bedford, N.H.) who took 24^th with a time of 18:31.6.
In 32^nd was sophomore Nicole Yeomans (Foxborough, Mass.) followed closely by junior Cayla Barretto (Woburn, Mass.) in 33^rd. Yeoman's time clocked in at 18:42.3, a new personal best, and Barretto finished just a under a second later at 18:43.2.
The final scorer for UNH was Madeline Quigley (Rowley, Mass.) taking 38^th with a time of 18:53.6.
In the sub-varsity race, UNH had two runners in the top-10 to secure a second place team finish.
- Sophomore Lauren Dean (Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H.) took second in a photo finish, being beaten out by one step by Dartmouth's Samantha Ford. Both runners clocked in with an official time of 18:41.6, a personal best for Dean.
- Sophomore Eleonora Olsmats (Djursholm, Sweden) took fifth overall with a time of 18:55.0.

FROM THE COACH:
On the NEICAAA Championship:
"It's great to continue in the tradition what we've established since 2013; we're excited and we're looking forward to the rest of the championship season."

On the team's execution:
"I'm very pleased with this team doing what they're doing; I think this team is really doing a great job to committing to what we're doing in training and executing that on race day. It was impressive for Shannon [Murdock] to get up front and race the way she did, she worked very hard this summer and this race was indicative of that."

--Head Coach Robert Hoppler.

-- unh --