LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Junior
Jillian Richardson and senior
Tara Ellard both earned All-America honors as they led the Bates women's cross country team to a 16th-place finish out of 32 teams at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, held Saturday at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park.
The 17th-ranked Bobcats fared one place better than their ranking, scoring 481 points to finish three points behind 15th-place Wellesley and five points in front of 17th-place Calvin College.
Richardson (Auburn, Maine) placed 33rd and Ellard (Brewster, Mass.) placed 39th out of 293 individuals in the race, both earning their first career All-America honors for their top-40 finish. Richardson, Bates' frontrunner in every race of her two-season career thus far, finished the 6-kilometer course in 21:42.7, while Ellard was close behind in 21:50.2, completing the team captain's outstanding senior season.
"It was so fun to watch Tara catch up to Jill during the race, and see them run together for much of it," said head coach
Jay Hartshorn. "These two have led the team this whole season, and it was so exciting to see them both earn All-American honors."
Junior
Jordan Wilson (Medfield, Mass.) finished 163rd overall as Bates' third scorer. First-year
Olivia Reynolds (Cumberland, Maine) finished 174th (22:54.5) and junior
Ilana Zeilinger (Washington, D.C.) came in 212th to complete Bates' team scoring.
Senior
Carly Harris (Orinda, Calif.) finished 225th and sophomore
Jen Coseno (Sutton, Mass.) took 253rd place (23:36.2) as Bates' two displacers.
"I am really proud of this group; they've been so consistently strong this season," said Hartshorn. "As a team we had some bumps along the way, but this group always managed to stay focused and consistently perform at a high level."
The race represented Bates' third straight team appearance at the NCAA Championships, and the third-highest national finish in the team's seven NCAA Championship appearances.
Bates previously ran as a team at NCAAs in 1995 (placing 18th out of 21 teams), 1997 (15th/21), 2012 (19th/32), 2016 (19th/32), 2018 (17th/32), and 2019 (14th/32). No NCAA Championships were held in 2020 due to COVID-19.
