Myette Finishes as Runner-Up to Three-Time Champion

Coaches Pick Junior as Top Rookie in Landmark Conference

TOWSON, Md. — Goucher's Kelsey Myette (Binghamton, N.Y./Seton Catholic Central) beat 69 other runners across the finish line at today's Landmark Conference Women's Cross Country Championship. One runner did, however, finish ahead of Myette.

Myette, a junior competing in the sport at the collegiate level for the first time this season, was runner-up to Susquehanna's Alycia Woodruff, who completed the 6,000-meter race over the rural terrain of the Goucher campus in 23:04.7, lowering the course record by nearly 55 seconds. Woodruff went into the race as a two-time Landmark champion, having won the race previously in 2007 as a freshman and again in 2008 as a sophomore. In 2009, she placed third.

Myette, who was clocked at 23:27.8, and the third- through fifth-place finishers also posted times under the former record for the course. Third place went to Moravian's Cadee Rockwell (23:32.0), fourth place to Scranton's Kathleen Druther (23:43.8) and fifth place to Susquehanna's Casey Hess (23:47.4).

The second-place performance by Myette, who was selected Female Rookie Runner of the Year in the Landmark Conference in a post-race vote by the conference's eight head coaches, represents the highest finish by an individual in a conference meet in the history of Goucher's women's cross country program. In addition, her time was the sixth-fastest all-time for a Goucher female running a 6,000-meter race.

The top seven finishers in today's race make up the All-Landmark first team; the next seven are second-team performers.

Myette wasn't the only Goucher runner to earn all-conference honors. For the second year in a row, Hadley Couraud (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) landed on the second team, this time because she finished in 13th place overall with a time of 24:39.7.

Couraud placed 11th at the Landmark meet in 2009.

Freshman Taylor Burr (Addison, Maine/Maranacook Community) was the third Goucher runner to finish today as she turned in a time of 24:51.5, good for 17th place. Two other freshmen came in back-to-back for the Gophers in 27th and 28 place, respectively: Katelynn Zidanic (York, Pa./Central York) was clocked at 25:54.2 and Shea Staab (Fallston, Md./Fallston) at 25:59.0.

The Gophers, who didn't finish higher than sixth in the team scoring at the Landmark meet in the conference's first three years of existence, wound up fourth this time with a team score of 87 points.

Teams in front of Goucher in the final results were Susquehanna in first with 51 points, Scranton in second with 74 and Juniata in third with 85, just two better than the Gophers. Moravian followed in fifth place with 92 points, Catholic (101) was sixth and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (204) was seventh.