Cross Country To Compete At NCAA Division III Regionals

AURORA, N.Y. – The Wells College cross country squads will compete at the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Cross Country Championship this Saturday, Nov. 15 at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, N.Y. The Wells men will compete in the 11 a.m. 8K race while the Express women will start their 6K at 12:15 p.m.

Individual runners from Wells made their first appearances at the NCAA Regionals in 2011, but for only the second time since the women's cross country program debuted in 2006, a team from Wells will qualify with a score at the event. The official NCAA Atlantic Cross Country Regional website, containing the participant manual, final meet entries, starting box assignments and directions, can be found here.

The women's cross country program will send six runners, including senior Katie Lamanna (Constableville, N.Y.), senior Lindsey Guzewicz (Auburn, N.Y.), senior Veronica Frisenda (Patterson, Calif.), senior Paige Fralick (Mexico, N.Y.), senior Anastasia Benson (Rockford, Ill.) and sophomore Deaven Theriault (Ludlow, Mass.). The men's program will produce three entrants in this year's meet, including senior Paul Hernon (New Hartford, N.Y.), junior Stephen Armstrong (Horseheads, N.Y.) and senior Andrew Judson (Court Gambrillis, Md.).

Making her third collegiate appearance at the NCAA Regionals, Lamanna had a strong second season for the Express. Only two years removed from Third Team All-Conference honors at the league's Championship, Lamanna finished 22nd overall at the NEAC Championships on Nov. 1 to place second on the squad.

Guzewicz will make her second career appearance at the NCAA Regional meet after finishing in 198th place as a freshman in 2011 with a time of 26:36.2. Last year at the regionals, Benson posted a career-best 6K time with a time of 28:03.3 as a junior and will make her fourth appearance at the regional meet Saturday.

Theriault, who picked up First Team All-NEAC honors after placing fourth at the 2014 NEAC Championships earlier this month, will make her second career appearance at the NCAA meet. She turned in a time of 25:14.8 as a freshman last season, placing 196th.

Racing as an individual from the men's cross country team, Hernon placed 216th in the field of 275 runners with a time of 29:43.2 in his first-ever NCAA meet. Armstrong will make his second-ever appearance at the regional meet on Saturday after competing as a freshman in 2012. His time of 29:17.8 in 2012 placed him first amongst all non-affiliated male runners in the race as he ran to the second-best time of his career.

Fralick, Benson and Judson will see action for the first time at the NCAA Division III Regional level on Saturday.