#16 Women's Cross Country Set to Compete at NCAA Division II National Championships


Junior Nicole Borofski has raced to individual championships at the NE-10 Conference Championship and the East Regional Championships this fall. (PHOTO BY Jim Stankiewicz)

Skyhawks look to finish strong after NE-10 and Regional titles

EASTON, Mass. (November 19, 2015) – The Stonehill College women's cross country team, ranked 16th in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II poll, and ranked first in the East Region, will compete in its 16th consecutive NCAA Division II Championship this Saturday in Joplin, Missouri, hosted by Missouri Southern State University, at 11 a.m. (EST).

The NCAA Championships will be webcast live via ncaa.com, with links to the webcast as well as live results also available on stonehillskyhawks.com.

On November 8th, Stonehill captured its sixth East Region title in the past seven years with a dominant 48 point effort at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds, in Hopkinton, N.H. Two weekends before that, the Skyhawks ran to their seventh straight Northeast-10 Championship with a 23 point showing in Colchester, Vermont, hosted by Saint Michael's College.

Stonehill's roster includes four student-athletes that have raced at past NCAA Championships, including junior Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North), who has a pair of NCAA meets under her belt. The three-time All-Region performer placed 220th and clocked in with a time of 24:26.2 as a freshman in 2013 at the Plantes Ferry Athletic Complex in Spokane, Washington. Borofski then finished 65th overall with a time of 22:43.3 at the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky, last fall. Borofski will look to improve on last years' time after claiming victories at the NE-10 Championship and the East Regional Championships.

Junior Aisha McAdams (North Kingstown, Rhode Island/North Kingstown), will be making her third consecutive NCAA Championship appearance after earning a time of 23:27.7, good for 154th overall, last fall.

Junior Alexandra Buonfiglio (Lynnfield, Massachusetts/Lynnfield) and sophomore Emily Knox (Worcester, Massachusetts/Notre Dame Academy) both made their NCAA Championship debuts a season ago, with Buonfiglio finishing 138th in  23:18.0 and Knox crossing the finish line 123rd and posting a time of 23:06.7.

Freshman Makenzie Cyr (Douglas, Massachusetts/Douglas) will cap an impressive rookie campaign with the first NCAA Championship race of her career on Saturday. Cyr, a three time NE-10 Rookie of the Week, earned both All-NE-10 first team and All-East Region honors with her fifth and tenth-place finishes, respectively. The Douglas, Mass. native was recognized with the Northeast-10 Conference Rookie of the Year honors for her stellar freshman season.

Stonehill's final two entries on Saturday are junior Alexandra Grimaldo (Marlborough, Massachusetts/Marlborough) and freshman Elizabeth Hannon (Franklin, Massachusetts/Bishop Feehan), neither of whom have NCAA Championship experience. Hannon collected second team All-NE-10 and All-East Region honors in Stonehill's last two races.

The Skyhawks have finished 19th, 25th, and 23rd in their last three NCAA Championship appearances. The program's highest finish came in 2003, when Stonehill placed 10th overall among 24 teams at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

Stonehill has had five All-American performers in program history with Chelsea Bishop, '14, being the latest, placing 36th overall with a time of 21:47.3 in 2013. Erin Carmone, '13, owns the best finish ever for a Stonehill student-athlete at the national level, as she placed 23rd overall as a freshman in 2009 at the NCAA Championship hosted by the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana.

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