Women's Cross Country Team Places Second at USCAA National Championships

Junior Marissa Lathrop ran a fantastic race for ESF, covering the 6k course in 24:03, earning her a fifth-place overall finish, a dramatic improvement from her 15th-place finish in 2016. Lathrop's top five finish qualified her automatically to the USCAA All-American First Team.

Lathrop received lots of scoring help from her teammates with a trio of Mighty Oaks finishing in 14th (Erin Cocca - 25:15), 15th (Erin Cuddihy - 25:17) and 16th (Laura Wengert - 25:21) place overall. Cocca's 14th place finish qualified her for the USCAA All-American Second Team. For junior Cuddihy, her 15th-place finish was an improvement from last year's 23rd-place finish.

Twelve schools and more than 120 runners participated in the race.

"I am so proud of both teams this year. Early in the season, they bought into what the coaches were asking from them to do. They did the work and were clearly able to see the results. We hope to build from this season, especially knowing how young we are," said Head Cross-Country Coach Mike Melfi.