Georgetown’s women’s cross country team wrapped up a historic season with the school’s first NCAA Division-1A National Championship today at Indiana State University. They took down Big East rival Villanova, who was looking for their third straight championship, and runner-up University of Washington.

Individually, senior Emily Infeld finished fourth in the 6000-meter run, as her 19:45 mark put her within three seconds of the winner. Earlier in the year, Infeld referred to her group as “the toughest” team and backed up her words by leading the Hoyas. The women were paced by Claire Richardson, Emily Jones, Kirsten Kasper, and Katrina Koogan, who all finished within nine seconds of each other and finishing between 33th and 46th place, respectively.

The women were not short on confidence and truly believed in each other, as their coach, Chris Miltenberg (MSB ’03), conveyed in an interview with the Voice in October:

“We train with the best people in the country every day, we run against the best competition at our meets. That gives us confidence.”

The men’s team finished in 17th place this weekend out of 31 qualified teams. The men were ranked 15th in the nation heading into Nationals and finished strong as well. This team has been a national power for some time and have only made positive strides since Director of Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Patrick Henner took over in 2007. The National Championship marks the fruition of years of hard work, especially for Infeld and her fellow seniors. Congratulations to our cross country squad on a spectacular 2011 season!

Photo: GUHoyas