CANTON, N.Y. – The Cortland women's cross country team finished in eighth place out of 36 schools at the NCAA Div. III Atlantic Regional Championships. The host school St. Lawrence won the title with 77 points, followed by Geneseo (91), Plattsburgh (99), Rowan (113), NYU (168), Vassar (201), The College of New Jersey (202), Cortland (209) and Oneonta (244) in the top nine.

St. Lawrence and Geneseo earn automatic bids to next week's NCAA Div. III Championships in Wisconsin by virtue of their top-two finishes. The next three finishers – Rowan, NYU and Vassar – are eligible for at-large berths, which will be announced Sunday on NCAA.com.

Three Cortland runners earned all-region honors with top-35 individual finishes. Senior Alyson Dalton (Sherrill/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) finished eighth in a field of 256 runners in 22:21.6 over 6,000 meters. Dalton is an all-region runner for the fourth straight year. She finished fourth last year, 20th in 2009 and 19th in 2008. Freshman Bori Tozser (Homer) finished 17th in 22:40.3, with junior teammate Jordyn Naylon (Fairport) right behind her in 18th place in 22:44.8. Plattsburgh's Stefanie Braun won the race in 21:52.1.

Dalton is guaranteed a spot at next week's nationals as an individual qualifier. The top seven runners from schools that do not qualify as a team earn national berths. Tozser and Naylon have a chance to go to nationals based on which schools earn at-large berths. If Plattsburgh and Rowan are both chosen as team entries, Toszer will be the final individual qualifier. For Naylon to qualify, Plattsburgh, Rowan and NYU all need to earn at-large berths.

Cortland's other three runners all finished in the top 100. Senior Hannah Hoffman (Rome/Rome Free Academy) placed 75th in 23:57.2, sophomore Emily Cotey (Norwood/Norwood-Norfolk) was 92nd in 24:21.0 and sophomore Colleen Fischman (Orchard Park/Hamburg) finished 99th in 24:26.4.

Complete Results (PDF)

Regional Web Page

Video Highlights (women first, then men)