TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Roger Williams University Women's Cross Country sophomore Hannah Zydanowicz (Newington, Conn.), running in the program's first-ever NCAA Championships, finished an impressive 65th place out of the 288 runners entered.
Zydanowicz's time was her second-best ever 22:30.60. The meet featured the top-32 teams in the country, along with the top-56 individual runners not on a qualifying team.
“We talked about what some of her goals going into this race were in the days leading up to the meet,” said Head Coach Sean Livingston. “One of the big ones was to go out and try to set a personal best and the other was the ultimate goal, to finish among the top-35 and earn All-American honors. Although she fell a little short of those two—only 30 seconds separated the last AA spot and Hannah's time—this race for Hannah was nothing but a great one. She finished tenth among all of the New England competitors that she raced last week and as the second individual of the seven who qualified out of the region.
“It seemed the course ran a little slower than I had first thought, making it more difficult to set personal bests. In looking at the other runners' times from our region, they also almost all ran slower times as compared to last week.”
“She battled all the way through, passing a big group of runners near the end. I knew I could count on her to put forth her best effort; she did so in every meet this fall. I'm sure in some regards this race was a bit overwhelming—there is really no other race to compare this one to. It's big-time & it's got that feel of something very special.
“The host school did an incredible job with every last detail, and I'm glad Hannah got to experience all it had to offer. It capped off an absolutely fantastic season for her. Once she has some time to reflect on all that she has accomplished, I don't even know if she'll quite believe it!”
