ERIE, Pa. – Junior Rachel Ramsey (North Versailles, PA/East Allegheny) was crowned the individual champion to lead the Penn State Behrend women's cross country team to a first-place finish at the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championship Saturday morning with a total score of 31.
The Lions won their third AMCC title in the past four years and had seven women qualify for the All-Conference team. Last year's champion Franciscan finished second (58) and Penn State Altoona finished third (94).
Ramsey has led Behrend in their previous four races and the championship would be no different. Ramsey bolted off the starting line to get ahead of the pack. Once she took the lead, she never looked back to win medalist honors. A 6:23 mile pace led her to finish the 6k in 23:47.6, good enough for the fifth best time in AMCC Championship history.
Katie Manno (Erie, PA/McDowell) and Courtney Sargent (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy) crossed the finish line next for the Lions, taking fifth and sixth place overall, respectively. Manno, who led Behrend in last year's championship race, finished with a time of 25:15.7. Sargent crossed the finish line with a time of 25:32.1.
Ashlyn Carlsson (Butler, PA/Knoch) placed eighth overall and fourth in the Behrend lineup with a time of 25:50.3. Katelyn Hancock rounded out the Lions' scoring runners with a 11th place overall finish. She finished with a time of 26:07.4.
Paige Allen (Butler, PA/Butler) and Abby Gilmore (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) took home 12th and 13th place finishes respectively. The top 15 runners from this championship race are named to the All-Conference team.
The Lions have the next two weeks off before they compete at the NCAA Regionals in Carlisle, PA on Nov 14.
