Manchester Nips Franklin as HCAC Women’s Cross Country Favorite

GREENWOOD, IN - Manchester College's women's cross country team has been narrowly selected as the front runner to win the 2009 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship. The Spartans held off second place Franklin by one point, 77-76, receiving one more first place vote than the Grizzlies in a poll of the conference's nine head coaches. 

Franklin will look to claim its second consecutive championship at the HCAC championships this fall, as the Grizzlies totaled a second-best 76 points and four first place votes.  Anderson University placed third in the poll with 63 points.  Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology finished fourth with 49 points and was followed by Hanover College (48 points), Defiance College (30), College of Mount St. Joseph (25), Transylvania University (24) and Bluffton University (13).

Manchester fell just short of its first women's cross country championship last fall, placing six runners on the All-HCAC teams.  All six are set to return to Brian Cashdollar's squad.  Last season's second place individual finisher, Jessica Bremer (Howe, Ind./Prairie Heights) and fellow first-team All-HCAC member Tiffany Alva (Medaryville, Ind./West Central) look to lead the list of returnees. 

Three runners on the all-conference first-team return to help Franklin win its second-straight HCAC cross country title.  The Grizzlies held off the Spartans by just four points in last fall's meet at Manchester College.  Franklin returns those three top performers, including first team finishers Heather Waterman (Shelbyville, Ind./Morristown), Kristi Brown (Greenwood, Ind./Muncie South), and Shannon Egold (Cloverdale, Ind./South Putnam).  Waterman finished fourth at last year's meet, while Brown and Egold finished fifth and 12^th respectively.

Anderson placed third at the 2008 HCAC championships and returns two key All-HCAC runners from that squad.  HCAC Freshman of the Year, sophomore Candace DeLong (Anderson, Ind./Frankton), returns after finishing eighth in North Manchester.  Senior Kristen Reiff (Converse, Ind./Oak Hill) is back after leading the Ravens with a sixth place finish.

The 2009 HCAC Women's Cross Country Championship is set for Saturday, October 31.  The event will be hosted by College of Mount St. Joseph.

The 2009 women's cross country season is set to begin on September 1.

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