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Kelsey Whitaker Earns All-New England Honors, Return Trip to Nationals

Kelsey Whitaker Earns All-New England Honors, Return Trip to Nationals
Posted: Nov 15, 2014

From Brandeis University Athletics

Brandeis University junior Kelsey Whitaker (Kingston, Mass./Notre Dame Acad.) earned her first career All-New England honor for cross country yesterday at the 2014 New England Division III New England Regional held at Williams College. In the process, Whitakerhas qualified for her second-straight NCAA championship, it was announced on Sunday afternoon.

Whitaker, who was the team's second or third runner all year long, turned in her finest performance of the season, as well as her best showing at New Englands. She covered the 6K course in 22:30 to finish in 18th place out of 387 runners. Though her time was a shade off her 2013 performance at New Englands, when she missed All-Region honors by three seconds, Whitaker improved her placement by 20 spots this year. A member of last year's team that qualified for the NCAA championships, Whitaker should be the fifth- or sixth-best runner not part of a team from New England, which would send her to Mason, Ohio, next weekend.

As a team, Brandeis battled illness and finished in 13th place, down from last year's fifth-place showing. The Judges scored 421 points, 11 behind WPI and 14 ahead of Bowdoin. MIT won the race with 40 points, besting Middlebury by 25.

Sophomore Maddie Dolins (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) was unable to return to her 2013 form because of sickness. An All-New England performer a year ago, she finished in 50th place this season with a time of 23:15.2.

The team's third runner was sophomore Lydia McCaleb (Evanston, Ill/Evanston Township). She came in 77th in her first New England meet with a time of 23:46.1.

Brandeis's next three runners placed within 10 spots of each other. Sophomore Ashley Piccirillo-Horan (North Granby, Conn./Granby Memorial) placed 136th with a time of 24:46.1, while rookie Kyra Shreeve (Northborough, Mass./Algonquin Regional) rounded out the Judges' scorers in 140th place in 24:50.6. Junior Molly Paris (Falmouth, Mass./Falmouth) was 143rd with a time of 24:53.7. Senior Kristi Pisarik (North Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) rounded out her cross country career with a time of 25:27.0, good for 185th place.