Women's XC Dominates MASCAC Championships, Wins Fourth Straight Title

Westfield State women's cross country ran to a dominating win at the 2024 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday at the Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster, Mass.

Westfield placed eight runners in the meet's top 10, finishing with 20 points, 42 points better than runner up Bridgewater State.

The Owls individual performances were highlighted by a runner up placing from Tealei Chandonnet (Dracut, Mass./Greater Lowell Tech) in a time of 18:56.16, and conference rookie of the year honors for Sophia Rebenciuc (Southwick, Mass./Bedford), who placed sixth overall in 19:27.51.

"Our goal was to get nine runners in the top 10, and we just missed it," said Owls head coach Marlee Berg-Haryasz, who was named the league's women's cross country coach of the year.  "We got 20 points as a team, which is the 2^nd best team score in MASCAC history.   We set that as a goal, as we knew we came into the meet favored, so it gave us something to work for, and the women 'packed up' and really stepped up for a memorable day.   We had a bunch of times that were personal bests or very close to them."

While Bridgewater's Naomi Cass won the individual title, Westfield runners ran 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10 among their scoring seven runners.

Julianne Kelly (Natick, Mass.) was third in 19:05, Shea Hamel (Longmeadow, Mass.) fourth in 19:20.  Molly Kennedy (West Springfield, Mass.) placed fifth in 19:23, Reese Stevens (Agawam, Mass.) seventh in 19:34, and Brynn LeCours (Haverhill, Mass.) eighth in 19:39.  Eliza Lee (Walpole, Mass.) placed 10^th in 20:06.  The top 10 runners in the race will earn all-conference honors when formally announced by the league later this week.

For the Owls, the conference title is their fourth in a row, and 26^th overall in the league's 39 championship meets since the meet was first held in 1985.

Westfield will be idle next weekend before competing at the NCAA Regional meet in Connecticut on Nov. 16.