Junior Kristen Mahoney led the Skyhawks to their second-straight regional crown with a fourth place finish overall today to collect All-East Region honors for the first time. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr)

Mahoney leads Skyhawks to 11^th-straight trip to NCAA Championships

Stonehill, who also won a second-straight Northeast-10 Conference title two weeks ago, will compete at the NCAA Division II Championships for the 11^th-straight year which will be held in conjunction with the NCAA Fall Festival in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, December 4. The Skyhawks won the team title by nearly 100 points, finishing with 42 to handily outdistance runners-up The College of Saint Rose with 131 points. Southern Connecticut State University was third (136), Bentley University fourth (139) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell fifth (144) in the field of 28 women's programs.

All five of Stonehill's scoring runners earned All-East Region honors, led by junior Kristen Mahoney (Weymouth, Mass./Weymouth) in fourth overall with her time of 22:59 over the six-kilometer course, with classmate Jill Alves (Whitman, Mass./Whitman-Hanson) right on her heels in fifth place with an identical time. American International College sophomore Jeptui Cherutich, the NE-10 Individual Champion, won the women regional crown with a time of 22:18.

Freshman Emily Regan (Hanson, Mass./Whitman-Hanson) posted an All-Region performance in her regional debut with a time of 23:07 to place eighth overall. Sophomore Caroline McBride (North Reading, Mass./North Reading) placed 11^th overall in 23:22, while classmate Stephanie Wilson (Wayzata, Minn./Hopkins) took 14^th in 23:37 to round out the Skyhawks All-Region runners.

Senior co-captain Lindsey Booth (Franklin, Mass./Franklin) turned in a strong performance for Stonehill with her time of 23:49 for 22^nd overall, while freshman Chelsea Bishop (Suffield, Conn./Suffield) finished 43^rd in 24:18.

The Stonehill women will be joined at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville for the NCAA Championships in two weeks by the Skyhawks men's team, which turned in a second place team finish to advance to nationals for the eighth-straight year. The men's championship will start on December 4 at 11 a.m., with the women's championship to follow at noon.