Saarel Leads Garnet Women to Fourth-Place Finish at Centennials
Elkridge, Md. - Freshman Emma Saarel finished in 13th place with a time of 22:39, good enough to earn second-team all-conference honors, leading the Swarthmore College women's cross country team to a fourth-place finish at the Centennial Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning from Elkridge, Maryland.
Saarel's impressive rookie championship performance helped lead the Garnet to an improvement from last season's fifth place finish. In fact, the Garnet came just four points shy of overtaking Haverford for third place.
Following Saarel was junior Hannah Rose, the Garnet's top finisher in the 2009 Championship race. Rose crossed the line in a time of 22:50 to finish 16th. Also placing in the Top 20 for the Garnet was sophomore Becky Painter (23:10/20).
Rounding out the scoring for Swarthmore was Rebecca Hammond - (23:12 /23), Isabel Newlin - (24:08 /35), Caitlin Russell - (24:15 /38) and Rebecca Woo (24:17/39)
Host Johns Hopkins took the title, finishing with 28 points as its first five runners to cross the finish line were all among the top 12 finishers. Dickinson took second place with 63 points, while Haverford placed third with 104 points. Gettysburg (129) completed the top five.