NEWVILLE, Pa. -- The Bates women's cross country team placed 29th out of 32 schools at Saturday's NCAA Championships, the fifth straight season the Bobcats have competed on the national stage.

First-year Leah White (Ann Arbor, Mich.) led the way for the Bobcats on the 6K course at Big Spring High School, racing to the finish in 22:50.7, good for 149th place out of 293 competitors. Junior Phoebe Pohl (Wayland, Mass.) was not far behind, taking 157th with a time of 22:53.1.

Senior Chrissy Aman (Hanover, N.H.) also placed in the top 200, finishing 189th with a time of 23:02.9. Senior captains Kahryn Cullenberg (Farmington, Maine) and Isabel May (Erving, Mass.) rounded out the scoring for Bates in 206th and 211th place respectively. 

As a team, Bates scored 652 points, just eight points behind 28th-place Connecticut College and well-ahead of 30th-place Carnegie Mellon.

The Bobcats now turn their attention to the indoor track and field season, which begins Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, hosted by Boston University.