South Bend, IN-The Franciscan University of Steubenville's women's cross country teams traveled to the University of Notre Dame on Friday, September 18, to compete in the National Catholic Championships. The women's team placed seventh of 31 Division I, II and III schools combined, a five place improvement from last year's 12^th place. 

Franciscan women took second place with 123 points in the small school division after Bellarmine University (a DII school), who won the race with 77 points. Coming in third place was Loras Collage with 133 points. Junior Theresa Evans led the women with a strong finish in the 5k race placing third (twelfth overall) with a personal record time of 18:54 minutes. Senior Erin Bliss, competing in her first race of the season, finished sixth (seventeenth overall) in 19:04 minutes. Junior Monica Rust followed closely behind in seventh place (eigteenth overall) completing the race also with a personal record time of 19:05 minutes. Finishing fourth for Franciscan was junior Anna Scharnecchia, who scored 51 points with a time of 20:29 minutes followed by junior Lexie Mathis who scored 56 points with a time of 20:36 minutes. The race was comprised of 24 small division schools and 260 runners.

"The women competed very well," commented coach Dr. Daniel Kuebler post-race. "It was great to have our full varsity team compete in this race and to see Theresa Evans race neck-and-neck with a Notre Dame runner."

The team will compete next week at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. Race times will start at 10:30 a.m.