STANDISH, Maine – With three runners earning All-Conference honors, the Regis College women's cross country team finished in fifth place at the 2018 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Cross Country Championships, hosted by Saint Joseph's College Sunday on the SJC Cross Country Trail.
For the second straight year, Maggie Mann (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) earned First Team All-GNAC honors with a fourth-place finish, completing the five-kilometer course in 20:20. Mann averaged 6:33 per mile as she led the Pride for the fifth time this season.
Maddie Boucias (Buckland, Mass.) also repeated as an all-conference honoree, earning Second Team All-GNAC recognition as she improved to a 10th-place finish this year after finishing 12th last year. Boucias finished in 21:07 as she enabled Regis to join Suffolk and Emmanuel as the only teams with multiple top-10 finishers.
Ashleigh Kelley (Stoneham, Mass.) earned Second Team All-GNAC honors as well, completing her first career conference championships in 13th place in 21:36. Her sister Erin Kelley (Stoneham, Mass.) posted a time of 22:54 to finish in 27th place.
Desiree Jones (Oceanside, Calif.) posted a season-best five-kilometer time of 24:33 to be Regis's fifth and final scorer, crossing the finish line in 59th place. Joelle Bockus (Windham, Maine) finished in 77th place with a time of 26:26, just ahead of teammate Lizzy Melvin (Southington, Conn.) in 78th place in 26:49. Melvin was named to the GNAC All-Sportsmanship Team.
As a team, the Pride compiled 101 points for fifth place, just seven points behind second-place Suffolk with Saint Joseph's College and Colby-Sawyer only a few points ahead of Regis. Emma Weisse of Suffolk won the individual conference title in 19:38, just two seconds ahead of teammate Emily Manfra, while Emmanuel placed its five scoring runners in the top 17 to cruise to the GNAC team title.
Regis will return to Maine in two weeks for the NCAA Division III New England Regional Championships, hosted by Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Saturday, Nov. 10. The women's six-kilometer race is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.