By: By: Bill Morgal, Interim Sports Information Director
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Shippensburg University women's cross country program will compete this Saturday at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships to be held on the University of Southern Indiana's home course. The women's race will begin at 1 p.m. ET.
Shippensburg won its second consecutive women's Atlantic Region Championship on November 7 at Mansfield and its fourth overall in program history. The Lady Raider runners will be looking for strong showings from the No. 3 through No. 5 runners while sophomore
Neely Spence and junior
Mary Dell are seeking the individual title.
Guiding Shippensburg is 12th-year head coach
Steve Spence, the 2009 USTFCCA Atlantic Region Cross Country Women's Coach of the Year. Spence has guided the program to back-to-back conference and regional championships en route to the team's second straight appearance at the national championships.
Neely Spence, a two-time Atlantic Region Champion and two-time PSAC Champion, was the runner-up to Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler last season at the national championships and is seeking her first national cross country title. Dell finished third at the regional meet and was an All-American last season based on her performance at the national championships.
About the Lady Raiders:
Spence won the regional title by 26 seconds over Millersville's Priscilla Jennings just two weeks ago and is looking forward to running in good weather after trudging through the snow and sub-zero wind chills last year on the course at Slippery Rock. She has won every race in which she has competed this year, including the Brooks Paul Short Run and the Penn State National Invitational, and will be looking to battle Pixler for the title in Saturday's race.
Dell has continued to progress as one of the best runners in Division II. She finished third at the regional meet to earn all-region honors for the second consecutive season while also finishing third at the PSAC meet from Edinboro. A gifted and talented competitor, Dell will be seeking a Top 10 finish at this weekend's meet and will be running toe-to-toe with the best runners in the nation.
has battled illness recently but still been a key competitor for Shippensburg. She has served as the team's No. 3 runner at both the PSAC meet (17th place) and the regional meet (24th place) and will be looking to improve upon her 6K efforts this season to help Shippensburg climb the overall standings this weekend.
