Northwestern cross country wasn’t able to earn a second consecutive bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships last Saturday as a team, but junior Ava Earl made its presence felt. After qualifying for Nationals individually at Midwest Regionals the week prior, she placed 64th out of 254 runners in Charlottesville, Virginia with a 20:24 time over 6K to cap off the season.
Early’s finish marked the second-best race by a Northwestern runner at NCAAs ever. The only athlete above her on that list is Aubrey Roberts, who came 18th in 2018 and is NU’s only cross country All-American.