Wilgenbusch Earns All-American Award at NCAA Division III National Championships; Caps Off Incredible Season
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Anna Wilgenbusch (St. Paul, Minn.) of the University of Dallas women's cross-country team earned an All-American honor after finishing in 38th place out of 277 finishers with a time of 22:10.9 at the NCAA Division III National Championships, marking the first UD women's cross country athlete in school history to compete at the NCAA Championships. Wilgenbusch started in sixth place after one kilometer of the race. She eventually would lose pace down the stretch but had solid split times to finish the race out strong with great competition at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park. Wilgenbusch became Dallas' first-ever NCAA All-American with today's result. Note that only individual sports offer the termed NCAA All-American accolade.
"The wet and muddy conditions resulted in many surprises today for both team and individual results," Dallas Women's Cross Country Head Coach Nick Schneigert stated.
After the first kilometer Wilgenbusch gathered a time of 3:30.0 at that distance. At the 3K mark she fell to 19th position crossing this mark with a time 10:36.5. A kilometer later, she fell only four spots at the 14:38.4 mark (4:02.0 split). On the final leg of the meet Wilgenbusch lost position (15 spots) but notched a split time of 7:32.5 on the final two kilometers.
Parley Hannan (Ithaca College) finished first with a time of 20:53.8. Coming in 18 seconds later was Gennny Corcoran (Suny Geneseo). Isabel Cardi (Dickinson College) grabbed third place after finishing at the 21:19.9 mark.
Wilgenbusch is the 13th woman in SCAC history to earn All-America honors at this event and her performance marks the fourth-straight year the conference has produced a Division III women's cross country All-American. Also representing the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) in this year's women's national championship meet were senior Brianna Ratliff and junior Jordan Juran of Trinity University. Ratliff finished in 95th place in a time of 22:50.8 and Juran was 237th in a time of 24:03.0.
Johns Hopkins University, Washington University (Mo.), and Williams College finished first, second, and third, respectively in the team portion of the race.
Wilgenbusch, only a sophomore, had a phenomenal season winning nine meets she competed in and broke several UD records. She also gathered countless awards on her fantastic fall season. She will look to build upon this 2019 season in her final two seasons of athletic eligibility.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For the 1st time in U of D history, we have our 1st NCAA D3 All American! Despite very muddy conditions and great competition, Anna hung on and got All American! Good things happening at U of D! @TexasXCCoaches @UDallasSports @stagnesaggies @UofDallas @FloTrack @SCAC_Sports pic.twitter.com/aLCfg6m2K0
— U of Dallas CC/T&F (@UDallasCCTF) November 23, 2019
UP NEXT
This has concluded a fantastic 2019 season for Wilgenbusch and the Crusaders.