Senior captain Chelsea Bishop has competed in five races this season, and each time she has been Stonehill's top finisher.

Skyhawks aiming for more success after NE-10 and East Region titles

EASTON, Mass. (November 21, 2013) – The Stonehill College women's cross country team, ranked 20^th 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 14^th consecutive NCAA Division II Championship this Saturday at the Plantes Ferry Athletic Complex in Spokane, Washington.

On November 10^th, Stonehill captured its fifth straight East Region title with a dominant 57 point effort at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass. Two weekends before that, the Skyhawks put forth an even more impressive showing, as Stonehill cruised to its fifth consecutive Northeast-10 Championship with a 35 point showing in Manchester, N.H. on the campus of host school Saint Anselm College.

This year's Stonehill squad has collected numerous awards and recognition throughout the season. Following Stonehill's NE-10 title, Head Coach Karen Boen was recognized as the conference's Coach of the Year for the 11^th time. Freshman Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North) earned the NE-10 Rookie of the Year Award, and five Stonehill athletes posted All-Conference performances in the event.

Senior captains Chelsea Bishop (Suffield, Conn./Suffield) and Emily Regan (Hanson, Mass./Whitman-Hanson Regional), as well as freshman Aisha McAdams (North Kingstown, R.I./North Kingstown) earned First Team accolades, while Borofski and junior Brittany Venturo (Taunton, Mass./Coyle & Cassidy) earned spots on the Second Team.

In Stonehill's victory at the East Regional Championship, five of its student-athletes registered All-Region efforts, including Bishop, Regan, Borofski, Venturo, and senior Elizabeth LaRegina (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield). Boen was further honored as the East Region Coach of the Year as well.

Senior captain Emily Regan has three top-ten finishes in 2013.

This weekend in Spokane, Stonehill will again look to Bishop to pace the Skyhawks, as she has done all season. Bishop has competed in five races in 2013, and each time she has been Stonehill's top finisher. The senior placed 12^th overall at the DII Challenge on September 14^th, third at the Codfish Bowl on September 28^th, and 44^th at the New England Championships on October 12^th. In Stonehill's two biggest races of the season up to this point, Bishop finished third overall at the NE-10 Championship, and fourth at the East Region Championship to help lead the Skyhawks to victory in both events.

Bishop also has experience competing on the national stage. At last year's NCAA Championship hosted by Missouri Southern University, she was Stonehill's second finisher, placing 98^th overall out of 249 total participants. As a junior in 2011, Bishop finished 113^th overall at the NCAA Championship in Spokane, which was held at the same complex that will host this year's event.

Regan has established herself as Stonehill's number two runner in 2013, with three top ten finishes. The tri-captain placed 7^th overall at the Codfish Bowl, fifth at the NE-10 Championship, and sixth at the East Region Championship. Like Bishop, Regan also has experience competing on the national level.

Last year the senior finished 156^th at the NCAA Championship, and in 2010 Regan capped off an extremely successful freshman campaign in which she was named the NE-10 Rookie of the Year by placing 113^th overall at NCAA's, which was held at Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

Two of Stonehill's freshmen, Borofski and McAdams, have played a large role in the team's success this season as well. Borofski, the NE-10 Rookie of the Year, placed ninth at the NE-10's, and 11^th at Regionals, while McAdams finished seventh at NE-10's and 38^th at the East Region Championship. Borofski was selected as the conference Rookie of the Week for her performance at the Regional Championship, while McAdams garnered the same accolades for her showing at the Conference Championship.

Rounding out Stonehill's top-7 runners are LaRegina, Venturo, and junior Emily Anderson (Manchester, Conn./Manchester). LaRegina kicked off her senior campaign with an individual title at the Shacklette Invitational on September 7^th, and placed 14^th in her latest performance at the East Region Championship.

Anderson followed up her 22^nd place finish at the NE-10 Championship by placing 27^th at the East Region Championship, while Venturo has earned finishes of third, 11^th, 12^th, and 22^nd in her top four performances this season.

Stonehill, which has competed in the Division II NCAA Championship each of the past 14 seasons, will be looking to top its 23^rd place finish in last season's meet. The Skyhawks posted a 19^th place finish in 2011, and an 18^th place finish in 2010's NCAA Championship. The program's best finish ever came in 2003, when the Skyhawks placed 10^th overall among 24 teams at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

Stonehill boasts four All-American performers in program history. Meghann Shanahan, '04, and Diana Chivakos, '05, became the first two to accomplish the feat in 2000 and 2004, respectively. In 2006, senior Kelly Chaisson, '07, finished 27^th overall at the Escambia County Equestrian Center in Pensacola, Fla., becoming the third Skyhawk to earn All-American honors. Erin Carmone, '13, owns the best finish ever for a Stonehill student-athlete at the national level, as she placed 23^rd overall as a freshman in 2009 at the NCAA Championship hosted by the University of Southern Indiana.

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