Meet Information
Race: NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Meet 6K
Location: Shelbyville, Ind. - Franklin College & Blue River Sports Authority, Hosts
Short Story: Alison Bryant clinches her first individual trip to the NCAA National Championship with a 9th place finish. 

Race Highlights
The Franciscan Women's Cross Country Team traveled to Indiana to compete in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Barons would start out of the 2nd starting box in the field of 42 schools. It would be a very crowded start with 265 runners starting down the opening kilometer. Alison Bryant would slowly work her way up this field, as it started to open up around the second kilometer. 

At the halfway point, Alison Bryant jumped up to 8th place overall, and the Lady Barons were in 16th place as a team. Jessica Campbell had a very strong first half as she was in 91st place at the halfway point. Rachel Hurley and Ashlin LaFond were neck and neck at 103rd and 104th. 

Alison fell one spot to 9th in the final three kilometers, as she posted a great time of 22:17.6. With the top seven individuals that are not on a qualifying team earning a trip to Louisville, Bryant secured her spot. Hope College would earn the automatic qualifier by winning this meet, and they had two players finish above Bryant. Elizabeth Atkins had a very strong finish to climb into the top 100. The strong freshman duo of Jessica Campbell and Rachel Hurley were next to finish for Franciscan, as they were seven seconds apart. Ashlin LaFond was the 5th Lady Baron to cross in 119th. That would give Franciscan 441 team points to place 17th out of the 42 teams competing. 

Pictured below, Alison Bryant received a medal for earing a spot on the All-Region team by finishing in the top 35.
 
 
Link to Full Field Results 

Lady Baron Top Finishers (By Overall Place)
9th   Alison Bryant             22:17.6
100th Elizabeth Atkins        24:15.3
111th Jessica Campbell     24:32.5
114th Rachel Hurley           24:39.4
119th Ashlin LaFond           24:47.5
199th Allison Sommer         26:51.8
210 Angelina Toole              27:08.5

Up Next
Alison Bryant will represent Franciscan at the NCAA National Championship in Louisville next Saturday. This will be her first ever trip to this event, and she will be the third Lady Baron in school history to run in it. Grace Galligan was the last Women's Cross Country runner to qualify for the National Championship in 2018, and she would go on to earn All-American status with her 24th place finish there. 

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