The Middlebury women's cross country team raced in the NCAA Championships on Saturday hosted by Spaulding University and the Louisville Sports Commission. The Panthers accumulated 450 points, good for a 14th-place showing in the 32-team race held at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park.

Middlebury was paced by Cassie Kearney, who crossed the finish line over the 6K course with an All-American performance of 21:02.1, good for seventh place overall in the 292-woman race. The next Panther to stop the clock was Bea Parr in 103rd (22:29.1), while Kate Kenny was just seconds behind in 114th (22:32.7). Also scoring for Middlebury was Nicole Johnson with a 167th-place effort of 22:53.4, while Emily Bulczynski finished 181st with a mark of 22:57.5. Rounding out the Panther competitors were Grace Kirkpatrick (204th - 23:11.7) and Morgane Orcutt (231st - 23:25.2).

Johns Hopkins claimed the team championship with 130 points, edging runner-up Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by just two points (132). SUNY Geneseo rounded out the top-three teams scoring 168 points. Earning the individual title was Kassie Rosenbum of Loras with a time of 20:11.1.

The Panthers were making their 24th-straight appearance at the NCAA Championships. Middlebury headed into the national meet following a third-place effort at the NESCAC Championship and a runner-up finish last Saturday at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships.