NCAA Championship Results
TERRE HAUTE, IN (November 17, 2012) -- Lined up against 276 of the fastest women in the country, junior captain
Aubree Piepmeier held her own, placing 93rd overall at the 2012 NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships in Terre Haute, IN.
After leading most of the race by a substantial margin, Amherst's Keri Lambert was overtaken in the final kilometer by last year's runner-up Christy Cazzola from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Cazzola went on to win the 6k race in a time of 20:53.3, while Lambert faded to third. The team championship was won by No. 2-ranked Johns Hopkins with 158 points, comfortably ahead of second-place Wartburg with 221.
On a perfect day for running, with clear, sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-50s, Piepmeier ran a competitive race from start to finish. As is often the case at the national championships, the race went out hard, with the top runners pushing the pace from the gun. Nevertheless, Piepmeier remained confident in her strategy, running what head coach
James McCowan described as a "smart race."
McCowan explained that despite getting "pulled out a bit fast in the first kilometer," Piepmeier stuck to her race plan. As a result, while the surrounding runners began to struggle, Piepmeier remained "strong after 3k, passing a lot of people in the second half of the race and continuing to move up throughout," McCowan said. Indeed, only four runners managed to pass Piepmeier after the halfway point in the race, while Piepmeier passed 35 of her competitiors. For her efforts, Piepmeier finished in 22:42.4, her third-fastest time ever, with the other two bests both coming at the University of Rochester earlier this year. Her 93rd place finish overall is tied with Johanna Spangler '12 for the best by a Vassar woman since the national championship field expanded to its current size in 2006.
Last week, Piepmeier became the sixth person in program history to qualify for the NCAA National Championships in cross country, with a tenth place, All-Region finish at the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships.
In all, Brewers women have qualifed for the cross country national championships eight times. With five of those qualifiers doing so in the past five years, the program has become increasingly nationally recognized. McCowan, however, sees the recent success as just the first sign of an even brighter future to come.
Although he is thrilled by the consistency with which Vassar's top individuals have qualified for the national championships, he has hopes for even more competitive performances in the future. To this end, McCowan feels it is important to send "more people to compete at the National meet each year."
After the race, Piepmeier discussed the challenges of running at Nationals, particularly the size of the field and overall intensity and physicality of the meet, which can make it tough to avoid "being swallowed up by the sea of runners." Both Piepmeier and McCowan feel that qualifying for the National Championships as a team is an important next step not only for the program as a whole, but also in terms of providing the best opportunities for individual runners to enjoy continued success on the national stage.
In outdoor track, Piepmeier had previously qualified in the 5000m for the USATF Junior National Championships as a freshman and the NCAA Division III National Championships as a sophomore, but this was her first time qualifying for a national championship meet in cross country. With the additional experience from Terre Haute under her belt, Piepmeier is excited to return for her senior season of cross country in the Fall after studying abroad this Spring.
