STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan women's cross country team captured its sixth team championship in program history as the Lady Barons placed seven runners in the top-15 and senior Grace Galligan won the 2018 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship meet Saturday morning.
Facing cold and rainy weather and mud-soaked course, the Lady Barons battled through all of the obstacles in their way to bring home their first team title since 2014, a title they also won on their home course.
Leading the charge for Franciscan was their steady leader, Galligan. The Springfield, PA native paced all runners as she finished with a time of 22:46.54, just seven seconds off of her personal best in a 6K race. Franciscan freshman Alison Bryant was the second to cross the line as she finished the race at 23:47.81, 17 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.
Freshman Mary Jo Schirger and sophomore Grace Scrocca took fifth and sixth within one second of each other as they finished at 25:33.56 and 25:34.39. Senior Carolyn Poston was fifth Lady Baron in the top-10 as she took ninth overall with a time of 26:06.71.
Sophomore Elizabeth O'Connor narrowly missed 10th as she came in 11th overall to earn All-Conference honors with a time of 26:24.19. Junior Natalia Badia earned the seventh all-conference honor for the Lady Barons as she took 14th with a time of 26:41.56.
Galligan earned her second individual championship after winning the title as well in 2016.
The Lady Barons have the next week off before the 2018 NCAA Mideast Regional on November 10.
