Ziga qualifies for NCAAs
Nov 11, 2006
She qualified for the national meet by being the seventh individual runner from a non-team qualifier in the MidEast Regional Invitational held at the Greene County Airport in Waynesburg, PA. She finished in 12th place at the meet. The team finished in 17th place amongst the field's 41 teams with 483 points.
Ziga is the first female cross country runner to qualify since Jamie Kendig '96. She took 64th place at the NCAA Division III National Championships back in 1994. Running at nationals is a tradition at Franklin & Marshall, which has produced four NCAA All-Americans in women's cross country: Denise Paull, Terri Smith, Lois Lucente, and Amanda Shaw Milewski.
The last team to qualify and win the NCAA Cross Country Championship came in 1985 under Coach Woge. This is Coach Keith Dieterle's first runner to qualify as an individual for the National Championships in his four years running the Diplomats' program.
The women's team battled late-season illness in the weeks prior to the Regional meet. Consequently, three of the Diplomats' top seven runners were not able to compete in the Regional Championships.
The runners who did compete fared well. Meredith Janeczek completed her cross country career finishing 71st. First-year runner Maggie Selzer took 101st place. Katie Byrne (116th), Kelly Farrelly (184th), and Emily Weir (204th), also ran solid races. 281 runners competed in the women's race.
11 Karen Ziga, Sr 24:12
71 Meredith Janeczek, Sr 25:57
101 Maggie Selzer, Jr 26:39
116 Katie Byrne, So 26:55
184 Kelly Farrelly, Fr 28:35
204 Emily Weir, So 29:30
Complete Results
