EARLYSVILLE, Va. – The Elon University women’s cross country team earned its highest finish ever at the NCAA Southeast Region Championships as the Phoenix finished seventh overall at the regional meet on Friday, Nov. 13, at the course at Panorama Farms.
The maroon and gold women, who came into the regional championships ranked No. 13 in the region, surpassed its previous team-best eighth place standing from a year ago in its 6K race. It’s also the third straight year that Elon has finished in the top-10 at the regional meet.
The Phoenix female harriers finished the meet with 269 points. Host Virginia (53) won the meet while NC State (74), North Carolina (100), William & Mary (187) and Eastern Kentucky (241) rounded out the top five. Elon finished ahead of other notable top-10 region schools Clemson, Duke, Richmond and Wake Forest.
Junior Kimberly Johansen was the top runner for the Phoenix in the race with a time of 21:38.6 and a 25th-place finish. The Chelmsford, England, native becomes the second straight Elon female to earn All-Region honors.
On the men’s side, the Phoenix men were 21st in its 10K race with 569 points. Elon’s Nick Ciolkowski clocked in a time of 30:38.0 in the race – the second-fastest performance in school history. He finished 37th overall to close out his outstanding rookie campaign.
Louisville won the men’s race with 77 points followed by host Virginia with 96 points.
The Rundown – Women
Johansen improved her positioning at the 2K split of the race where she was 50th to 31st at the 5K split before rallying to finish in the top-25 of the meet. She is the second female runner all-time for Elon to receive All-Region honors following Tereza Novotna from a year ago. Senior Elyse Bierut was the second Phoenix runner to cross the line with a time of 22:01.7 in 40th while rookie Coralea Geraniotis was 61st with a time of 22:28.3. Kaitlin Snapp (76th, 22:43.5) and Shelby Cuddeback (77th, 22:43.8) rounded out the top-five times for Elon.
The Rundown – Men
Ciolkowski’s time is only second to former All-American Luis Vargas in school history in the 10K race. Senior Ryan Gwaltney followed next for the Phoenix with a personal-best time of 32:10.8 – now fourth-best in school history. Ian O’Leary also broke into the top-10 in program-history with his personal-record time of 32:37.8. Reed Payne also established a new personal-best with a time of 32:44.5 with rookie Greg Paugh rounding out the top scores with his time of 32:55.0