Ravenna Neville '10 Caps Year with All-America Laurels, Helps Women Place 14th Nationally

Ravenna Neville '10 (left in photo) led Wesleyan to a 14th-place finish among 32 teams at the NCAA Division III Championship hosted by Baldwin-Wallace and held in Cleveland Sat., Nov. 21. By placing among the top-35 at the meet, Neville gained All-America honors, becoming the sixth Cardinal women to do so in the sport of cross country. Ellen Davis '07, who placed ninth nationally in 2006, was the last. This was Wesleyan's third trip to Nationals as a team and the squad equaled the highest finish by the team as the 2004 Cardinals also placed 14th.

Neville, who came in 22nd of 280 runners, was timed in 22:37.2 over the 6k course and was second among New England Division III entries. That matched her finish a week earlier in the New England Division III meet from which Wesleyan qualified for Nationals as a team with its fifth-place posting among 47 teams. Wesleyan improved a bit at the NCAAs as the Cardinals were fourth among the regional qualifiers, finishing ahead of Amherst for the first time this season. Middlebury was tops regionally with its fourth-place national finish while MIT was fifth and Williams eighth. Wisconsin-Eau Clare claimed the national title with a per-runner average time of 23:03. Wesleyan's average time was 23:41. Second among the Cardinals with a 70th-place time of 23:19.8 was Julia Mark '13 (right in photo).

A week earlier at the annual New England Division III Championship, this year held in Cumberland, Me. Sat., Nov. 14. Neville helped Wesleyan qualify for its at-large selection to the NCAA field as she was timed in 21:39 for 6k to place second. Neville was four seconds out of first place and five seconds ahead of the third-place finisher, both from MIT which took the team title along with Middlebury as each had 63 points. As usual, the NESCAC dominated the regional results, capturing six of the top nine slots and nine of the first 15. Joining Neville as an all-New England Division III honoree with her 25th-place showing was Mark, who came through in a time of 22:33. The top 35 finishers in the meet received all-New England laurels. Rosie Keogh '13 was 38th, Sarah White '11 claimed 41st and Tess Crain '12 was 53rd in rounding out the Cardinals' scoring five.

The men came in 11th in a field of 48 teams as the NESCAC was equally dominant with Williams and Amherst finishing one-two, and eight NESCAC squads placing among the top 12. Marc Whittington '13 paced the Cardinal contingent to the finish line with a 39th-place time of 26:24 for 8k. Wesleyan's entire scoring five hit the tape in a narrow span of just 27 seconds as Charles Lang '11 was 51st, Matt Katz '11 was 62nd, Bryan Marsh '13 was 65th and Jamie Lawrence '12 was 67th. All will be back for another year in 2010.

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