The top six runners on the Pomona-Pitzer women’s cross-country team traveled to Salem, Oregon last weekend for the NCAA Division III West Regional Meet and returned with results to brag about.

In a race that included 88 runners on 20 teams, the Sagehens, hoping for a top ten finish, snagged seventh as a team with three runners placing in the top thirty. The Hens’ average race time of 19.23.80 and a total combined race time of 1:36:59.20 landed their meet results in the record books as the third best times ever in P-P women’s cross-country history.

Though the NCAA has no qualifying requirements for the Western Regional, it is a Pomona-Pitzer rule that teams will only be flown to regional competitions if they finish their regular season third or better in SCIAC. A third place ranking in the conference behind Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Occidental sealed the trip for the Hens. Laura Bishop ’03, Stefanie McDougall ’04, Heather Callahan ’04, Erin Wagner ’03, Alexandra Borst ’05 and Ann Prouty ’05 qualified to run as the top six individuals on a team of nineteen.

Bishop, McDougall, Callahan and Wagner recorded all-time personal bests in an overall team effort that Coach Kirk Reynolds described as "dynamite." Bishop led the effort with a time of 17:59.90, placing second and qualifying for Nationals. Behind her, McDougall finished 18th with a time of 18:58.30, Callahan came in at 30th with a time of 19:24.30 and Wagner placed 54th with a time of 20:06.70. Borst ran the course in 20:30.00 and Prouty in 20:55.90, to finish in 65th and 69th place, respectively.

"We ran spectacularly," said Coach Reynolds. "Our times were great and it was a valuable experience for the freshmen."

Bishop’s time of 17:59 is the third fastest 5,000 meter women’s cross-country time in school history and makes her only the eleventh Pomona-Pitzer woman to qualify for cross-country Nationals. Bishop, who has been battling a stress fracture in her shin since conference finals in late October, went to Nationals last Spring in track but will be participating in her first National cross-country meet this Saturday in Rock Island, Illinois.

"I had a very disappointing race at cross-country regionals last year and didn’t make the Nationals cut," admitted Bishop, "so I was definitely stressed and nervous going into Saturday’s meet."

Pre-competition jitters didn’t hold Bishop back this time around, however. "Once I started running, I knew what I was doing."

"Laura ran a very smart and controlled race," agreed Reynolds. "Her whole goal was to qualify so she positioned herself well and pushed the pace of the front pack. She was very patient."

Reynolds believes that Bishop has a good shot at placing in the top 50 this weekend, if not in the top 35 all-American bracket, in a race that will include 235 runners. Said Bishop, "It would be great to named all-American but I’m happy enough just to be going."

Teams finishing in front of Pomona-Pitzer at the West Regional Meet included CMS, Willamette University, the University of Puget Sound, Whitworth College, Pacific Lutheran and Occidental. CMS finished first with an average time of 18:17.60 and qualified as a team for Nationals this Saturday.