Cass Garners All-East Region Honors, Advances to NCAAs for Third Straight Year

By Jim Fenton

CONTOOCOOK, N.H. -- Bridgewater State University senior Naomi Cass (Westport, Mass.) will finish her illustrious cross country career with another appearance in the NCAA Division III Women's Championships.

Cass earned a third consecutive trip to the nationals on Saturday afternoon by placing fourth at the NCAA Division III East Region Championships.

She finished the six-kilometer course at Hopkinton State Fairgrounds in 21:32.2, roughly 12 seconds behind the winner, senior Kate Sanderson (West Hartford, Conn.) of MIT.

Cass will travel to Spartanburg, S.C., for the NCAA meet on Saturday after going to Newville, Pa., and Terre Haute, Ind., the past two Novembers for the nationals.

Cass, a three-time Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference champion and Runner of the Year, turned in her best East Region performance.

She was tied for the lead at 7:05.1 after the first two kilometers and was second at the four-kilometer mark with a time of 14:19.9.

Sanderson won the race in 21:20.1 followed by senior Rujuta Sane (Chandler, Ariz.) of MIT 21:26.4, junior Leah White (Ann Arbor, Mich.) of Bates 21.28.1 and Cass.

As a sophomore in 2023, Cass finished 10th out of 232 runners with a time of 22:23.42.

A year ago, she moved up to sixth with a time of 22:05.72 and reduced that by roughly 33 seconds this fall.

Cass was 149th out of 292 runners at her first national race in '23 and improved to 115th place last year in 22:27.

Two other runners competed for BSU, which did not place in the team standings.

Freshman Olivia Pendleton (Yarmouthport, Mass.) was 136th in a field of 214 runners with a time of 25:44.0.

Sophomore Olivia Downin (Hudson, Mass.) was right behind Pendleton in 137th place in a time of 25:45.2.

Tufts won the East Region title with 51 points followed by MIT with 51 and Bates with 117.

Each of the ten regional team champions is assured of an NCAA berth, while 22 teams are selected as at-large bids by the NCAA committee. After the at-large teams are selected, the top seven individual runners from each region (who are not a part of a qualifying team) qualify for next weekend's national championship meet. The NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships selections will be announced by press release on Sunday (Nov. 16) by 3:00 PM ET on NCAA.com.