PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Lady Baron Cross Country team of Franciscan University has made history in the University's athletics, winning its third straight championship title this Saturday. Racing against fellow Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference student-athletes at Schenley Park, the Lady Barons placed first out of the nine schools.

Overall, the Lady Barons earned a team score of 28 to best runner-up Penn State Behrend's team score of 39. Freshman Nicole Krajewski earned first place out of the 86 women's runners in the 5K with a personal best and new school record of 18:36.

"I was impressed with how well they did especially without their top runner there," said head coach Dan Kuebler, "particularly Nicole who dropped about 40 seconds of her personal record and established a new school record – she had an amazing race."

Teresa Evans is the top runner for the Lady Barons but was unable to race Saturday due to injuries sustained during the season. The team persevered, however, with three Franciscan runners placing in the overall top five. With Krajewski leading the pack, Katherine Manion came in fourth with a time of 19:26.8, and Anna Scarnecchia finished immediately behind Manion with 19:49.9.

Four of the Lady Barons completed the course in less than 20 minutes: Krajewski, Manion, Scarnecchia, and Kailey Gotta with 19:58.2.

"Most everyone ran faster than they did three weeks ago on basically the same course," noted Kuebler. "It was so good to see how all the women improved – from the first runner to the 25th."

Three weeks ago the Lady Barons competed at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational that also took place at Schenley Park. The team took third at the event.

The top seven runners: Krajewski, Manion, Scarnecchia, Gotta, Lexie Mathis, Tessa Livermont, and Molly Chambers, will all continue into postseason competition this coming Saturday, November 6, at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship in Providence, Rhode Island.