TERRE HAUTE, IND. – Cortland sophomore Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) finished in 268th place at the NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championship, hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course.
 
Innocent completed the 8,000-meter course in 23 minutes, 49.6 seconds. A total of 293 runners compete in the race. Faith Duncan of Wilmington (Ohio) won the national title in 20:16.5, more than 40 seconds ahead of the runner-up.
 
Innocent earned her trip to nationals as an individual qualifier from the Nov. 16 Niagara Regional, in which she placed 15th.

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:

Overall I'd say this was a very good and very important experience for Melissa to have. While today's race didn't end up exactly as we may have hoped for, it was a pretty good effort and a great learning opportunity. Your first NCAA championships can be quite a challenge and for most folks – especially if you are there as an individual qualifier without teammates – it can be stressful and not enjoyable. Learning how to handle that is something that most folks can only do with some measure of experience, so getting to this meet as a sophomore is incredibly important!
 
If you take the time to reflect on Melissa's fall as a whole, it was pretty incredible: individual SUNYAC champion, leading her team to the SUNYAC title, earning all-regional honors and advancing to the NCAA Championships is a pretty stellar resume for a career, let alone a second campaign. We're excited to see what next semester can bring in terms of training and racing for her, as well as her remaining two years.
 
And just like that it's track and field season – that team opens up their season in 13 days with some folks at Cornell on Friday, December 6th and then split between Cornell and Utica College on Saturday, December 7th.