WINNECONNE, Wisc. – Senior Grace Galligan has impressed on the course all season and her final race for the Franciscan women's cross country team was no exception. Galligan captured 24^th overall in a very competitive NCAA DIII National Championship meet and earned the first All-America honors for the women's program, Saturday afternoon.

Galligan ran her fastest race of her career as she finished 24^th with a time of 21:45.7, 43 second faster than her previous PR. Her time also set the Lady Barons' program record for fastest 6,000-meter race.

"It's always a fast start at nationals and Grace and Liam both got out fast and put themselves in great position," remarked head coach Dan Kuebler.

Galligan edged out the 25^th place runner by a set as she finished just a 10^th of a second ahead of Elise Ramirez from SUNY Geneseo. The extremely competitive race saw just over a minute separate the first and 40^th place runners, the cutoff for All-America honors.

Galligan was in 34^th at the first split, about the 2.3K mark, as she hit 8:20.3 just over a third of the way through the race. Galligan began to make her move and over took 33^rd at the 3K mark at 10:44.6. In the final split with just 1,000 meters left, Galligan clocked in at 28^th with a time of 18:18.2. The Springfield, PA native used the final 1,000 meters to move up four spots and overtake runners from Johns Hopkins, Lynchburg, SUNY Geneseo, and Loras for the 24^th place finish.

Galligan will cap her impressive three-year career with the Lady Barons and add All-America honors to an already impressive resume. In her three year with Franciscan, Galligan has won two individual AMCC titles (2016, 2018), led the Lady Barons to a team title (2018), was named AMCC Runner of the Year (2018), was named AMCC Newcomer of the Year (2016), and earned two Mideast All-Region honors (2017, 2018).

"Grace has been such a blessing for our program. For her to finish her season off like this, as a coach, I couldn't be happier for her," concluded Coach Kuebler.