Regional Champs! CMS Women's Cross Country Wins West Title to Earn Automatic Bid to Nationals

WALLA WALLA, Wash. - Senior Natalie Marsh (fifth), senior Malea Martin (sixth) and sophomore Abigale Johnson (eighth) each earned top 10 finishes as the CMS women's cross country team cruised to the team title at the NCAA West Regionals on Saturday morning, hosted by Whitman.

CMS finished with 39 points to claim the regional title, well ahead of Pomona-Pitzer in second with 93 points. Host Whitman finished third with 153, followed by Occidental with 165. 

The Athenas left little drama for the team title, having five of the first 14 finishers to complete their team scoring before anyone else had more than two finishers. Marsh led the way for CMS with a time of 22:26.9, followed 2.4 seconds later by Martin in sixth place. Johnson crossed the line in 22:33.3 in eighth place to give the Athenas a third top-10 finisher. 

Sophomore Dulcie Jones came through in 13th place with a time of 22:47.6, and she was followed by freshman Riley Harmon in 22:50.0 in 14th place to wrap up the team scoring for CMS with 39 points. Sophomore Georgia Scherer was close behind in 18th place with a time of 22:58.5, and senior Matilda Msall rounded out the CMS contingent with a 27th-place finish in 23:10.3 (out of 125 runners).

Second-place Pomona-Pitzer didn't have its fifth-place finisher cross the line until 48th place, as the CMS quality depth at the top was too much for anyone in the regionals to overcome. 

The regional title means that CMS will be heading to nationals next Saturday in Wisconsin as a team for the 11th year in a row. The Athenas also add the West Region title to the SCIAC title they won two weeks ago.