The Red Devils hosted the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships this past Saturday, Nov. 14 at Big Spring High School. The men’s team finished in eighth place for the team event on the afternoon, missing out on an automatic bid to the national championships. The women’s team finished second place behind only #1-ranked Johns Hopkins University to claim an automatic bid for the national championships in Wisconsin next weekend.

  The men’s team was led by two seniors in the afternoon, Eli Howard ’16 and Alex Predhome ’16. Howard crossed the finish line at 25:58 to claim 15th overall in the race. Predhome came in eight seconds later for a 27th place finish. Both runners earned All-Region honors for their impressive finishes.

   Mason Hepner ’17 was the next Red Devil to cross the line with a time of 26:53, finishing in 61st overall. Nathan Udell ’19 and Zach Simmons ’16 finished out the scoring for Dickinson, crossing the line at 27:15 and 27:51 respectively.

Haverford College claimed the top spot on the day to claim the team title and the first of two automatic bids. Charlie Marquardt lead the Fords to victory with his individual victory thanks to a time of 25:14. The Blue Jays of Elizabethtown claimed the second automatic bid, finishing second in the team competition. Dickinson will have to hope for an at-large bid to Wisconsin, but Howard and Predhome also have a chance to qualify for nationals as individual runners.

   In the women’s event Sofia Canning ‘18, who finished fourth overall, led the Red Devils. The sophomore crossed the line at 22:02 to finish inside the top-5. Mackenzie Shelgren ’16 also ran a great race for Dickinson to earn a top-15 finish with a time of 22:19. Two more seniors posted scores for the Red Devils. Abby Colby ’16 and Claire Brawdy ’16 finished 20th and 30th respectively, with times of 22:50 an 23:02.

  Hannah Gore ’18 finished out the scoring for Dickinson with her 33rd place finish behind a time of 23:04. The top five Red Devils runners all earned All-Region honors for their performances on Saturday with five top-35 finishes.

Johns Hopkins claimed the team title thanks behind an amazing story and performance from two sisters. Sophia and Tess Meehan finished a mere second apart to claim first and second for the Blue Jays, leading Hopkins to the runaway title. Sophia Meehan crossed the line at 21:47 to lead all racers on the day.

  With the second place finish in the event, Dickinson earns an automatic bid into the NCAA National Championships at Wisconsin-Lacrosse on Saturday, Nov. 21.  This will be the women’s team’s 16th straight trip to the national championships after their 17th straight top-3 finish in the regional competition. The Red Devils will continue to look to their senior leadership and underclassmen standouts to carry them at nationals.