Northwestern
NCAA Championships
Roberts Places 50th in the Nation
11/19/2016 7:33:00 PM | Women's Cross Country & Track
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- To cap an outstanding rookie season, Northwestern Cross Country Freshman Aubrey Roberts placed 50th at the NCAA National Championships this weekend. Roberts has consistently led the team in competition, pacing them in various contests. This season she was NU's top finisher in five events and set a 6K team record with a time of 20:17.1 at the NCAA Regional Championships on Nov. 11th.
This time, Roberts beat out 200 other collegiate women to claim a spot amongst the nation's most elite runners.
"The race was going pretty well until around the 5K -- I was in a good place. My goal was to be All-American, meaning in the Top-40, and I was in 25-30th place pretty much a majority of the race… It was a little bit of a disappointment after being an All-American for 5.5 K."
With a time of 20:31.3, Roberts ran her way to a historic finish, making her the highest finisher of the program. In 2002, Rachel Evjen (89th place) was the highest finisher since reinstatement -- the '85 team led by Dina Alborano (58th place) was the last team to compete before the program was cut and reinstated in 1998 -- and Roberts surpassed both.
As a rookie, Roberts did everything she could to compete at the highest potential. Head Coach 'A Havahla Haynes said "Aubrey herself at the Division I level, being a true freshman, definitely held her own at every race and really attempted at every single goal to give herself a shot at the next opportunity."
"I think the season went pretty well. It was fun to be running with Sarah Nicholson at the front of the pack with a lot of other girls in college competition -- that was a new, fun experience," said Roberts.
In a closely-fought battle with Michigan that came down to the wire, Oregon became the lowest ranked team to ever to win the team championship -- Oregon scored 125, Michigan 126. Colorado came in third with 134 points and NC State claimed fourth with 223.
For the individuals, Missouri's Karissa Schweizer came up from behind Michigan's Big Ten Champion Erin Finn and Notre Dame's Anna Rohrer, sprinting her way to victory in the final 100 meters.
"Our goal this season was to give ourselves a shot at an individual making nationals or our team making nationals. With the season coming to a close I think we did what we could do this year," said Haynes.
Roberts has a good feeling about the future of Northwestern Cross Country, and is looking forward to sharing her accomplishments with her teammates. "It was definitely a blast to come to Nationals this year but I hope that in the future some of my teammates can come along with me. Maybe in the next year, definitely the next two years. Hopefully we can have a stronger squad going and just continue to improve."
Players Mentioned
