Kerno leads Blue Jays to 28th-place finish at NCAA DIII Championships

Results

MASON, Ohio – Amanda Kerno's late-race surge into the top 80 led Elizabethtown women's cross country to a 28th-place finish in the NCAA Division III Championships Saturday afternoon at the Golf Center at Kings Island.

Kerno, running in her final collegiate race, picked up 30 spots over the final half of the race after crossing the 3,100-meter mark in 105th place. She averaged 6:10 per mile to reach the 6,000-meter finish in 75th place with a time of 23:03.6.

The Blue Jays were appearing in their fifth national championship race under seventh-year head coach Brian Falk, and improved their finishing position by one spot over last year's 29th-place showing.

Elizabethtown earned its trip to nationals as an at-large recipient after an impressive third-place showing at last week's Mideast Regional. To do so, numerous runners had to step up.

Kerno wasn't the only Blue Jay to put in a strong second half push Saturday. Junior Lydia Dearie passed 17 women in the final 2.9k to clock in with the team's second fastest time, a 23:33.5.

Fifteen seconds back of Dearie was graduate student Megan Tursi in 183rd (23:48.8). Tursi picked up 33 spots after the halfway point.

E-town's scoring was completed by this year's Landmark Conference Champion, Amelia Tearnan (24:11.0), and 2014 Landmark Rookie of the Year, Maria Anderson (24:11.3), who finished back-to-back in the individual standings.

Sophomores Liz Wedekind (24:25.6) and Brianna Earnshaw (25:22.0) completed Elizabethtown's seven-runner contingent at the championships. The national meet was a first for four runners: Dearie, Anderson, Wedekind and Earnshaw.

The Blue Jays claimed their fifth best team finish in seven all-time trips to the NCAA meet. The women's race followed the men's and was run in nearly identical conditions, as temperatures held steady in the low 40s with heavy cloud cover.

Elizabethtown compiled 638 points in the meet with a scoring split of 1:07.7.

Johns Hopkins won its third straight national championship with all five of its scoring runners finishing in the top 30. Hopkins was the only team with a sub-100 score (87), ahead of MIT (112), St. Lawrence (138), Washington University of St. Louis (180) and SUNY Geneseo (212).

Elizabethtown was one of three Mideast Region teams to compete, along with Hopkins and Dickinson.

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Players Mentioned

Brianna Earnshaw: 5' 10"; Sophomore

Amanda Kerno: 5' 5"; Graduate Student

Amelia Tearnan: 5' 3"; Senior

Megan Tursi: 5' 7"; Graduate Student

Liz Wedekind: 5' 3"; Sophomore

Lydia Dearie: 5' 3"; Junior

Maria Anderson: 5' 3"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Brianna Earnshaw
: 5' 10"; Sophomore

Amanda Kerno
: 5' 5"; Graduate Student

Amelia Tearnan
: 5' 3"; Senior

Megan Tursi
: 5' 7"; Graduate Student

Liz Wedekind
: 5' 3"; Sophomore

Lydia Dearie
: 5' 3"; Junior

Maria Anderson
: 5' 3"; Freshman