KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University women's cross country team will compete in the 2025 NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Championships at Lock Haven University this Saturday, November 8, where 24 teams will vie for the title in the 6k race beginning at 10:30 a.m. on the West Branch Cross Country Course.
The Golden Bears finished fifth at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships two weekends ago, headlined by junior Maura Lenhart's (Center Valley, Pa./Southern Lehigh) 10th-place finish and second straight All-PSAC First Team honor. Redshirt freshman Gabby Keith (Reading, Pa./Exeter) ran a 24th-place time of 23:29.3 after making her Kutztown debut at the Lehigh Paul Short Run, while graduate student Sophia Knerr (Columbia, N.J./North Warren Regional) finished 28th with a time of 23:42.7, both earning All-PSAC Second Team honors.
The Maroon and Gold opened the season with a pair of first-place finishes at the WCU Season Opener and the DII/DIII Challenge, which they followed with a strong showing in a packed Paul Short Run field at Division I Lehigh University.
Head coach Ray Hoffman's team is headlined by Lenhart, Knerr and sophomore Olivia Solomon (Sunbury, Pa./Shikellamy), while it is among the deepest teams when competing at full strength. The projected lineup also features juniors Lizzie Brown (Wallingford, Conn./Mark T. Sheehan), Sage Dunkleberger (Watsontown, Pa./Warrior Run) and Jensen Kraft (Nutley, N.J./Saint Mary), and first-year runners in Keith, Faith Belote (Easton, Pa./Easton), Nina Castellano (Hasbrouck Heights, N.J./Hasbrouck Heights) and Allie Pavone (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown).
Kutztown was as high as third in the Atlantic Region rankings prior to the PSAC Championships, sitting in third before its conference championship outing. It currently sits in seventh in the latest Atlantic Region rankings, released October 28th, maintaining a spot on the radar in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA DII Championships later this month.
Live timing and streaming pages, as well as the NCAA Division II Regional Championship homepage, can be found at the above links.
Competitors from the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Cross Country Championships will look to advance to the NCAA DII Championships at Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course in Kenosha, Wis., on Saturday, Nov. 22.
