Newville, Pa. -- The University of Lynchburg women's cross country team raced to its best finish in program history at the national championship Saturday coming in seventh out of 32 teams.

It was Lynchburg's third-consecutive trip to the national championship race. Lynchburg's previous best finish was 21st which the Hornets earned in 2018 and 2022. 

Kayla Werner, a sophomore transfer from Forest, Va., ran to an All-American finish. She crossed the finish line in 21:52.6 and was 40th out of 293 athletes. She is Lynchburg's second-ever All-American in cross country. Kaitlyn Johnson's 36th-place finish in 2018 is the only other All-America performance for the women's program. The top-40 athletes earn All-America honors.

Allison Dell placed 45th in 21:59.2. Sarah James came in 50th and crossed the finish line in 22:04.0. Molly Silva earned another top-100 finish for the Hornets in 93rd at 22:26.4. Courtney Drumm ran a 22:32.8 placing 103rd, Lauren Massey went 23:04.0 in 194th, and freshman Jordan DiRisio went 23:31.1 to round out Lynchburg's historic day in 245th.

Werner made her biggest move at the two-mile mark jumping 10 spots. Dell and James both moved up at each checkpoint moving up 33 and 26 spots from the second mile to the finish line, respectively. 

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Lynchburg earned an automatic qualifier to the national tournament after winning the South regional championship for the second year in a row. The Hornets entered the national meet ranked at the 10th-best team in Division III and outperformed that ranking by three spots. 

Lynchburg's seventh-place finish at the championship was not only the program's best finish ever but also the best result by an Old Dominion Athletic Conference school. 

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--LYN--