After an impressive regular season that included a top-five finish in every race, the UConn women’s cross country team delivered another solid showing with a fourth place finish in the Big East championship.
In the 6K race, Connecticut finished with a team total of 89 points and placed behind Villanova (80), Providence (56) and Georgetown (28), who won the Big East championship for the fourth consecutive season.
Georgetown junior Chloe Scrimgeour was the first runner to cross the finish line with her 19:59 6K time and was the first of five Hoyas to place in the top 10. Kimberley May and Shannon Flockhart of Providence represented the Friars in the top 10 while Sadie Sigfstead and Emma McGill of Villanova placed in the top five for the Wildcats. Connecticut’s top finisher, Chloe Thomas, placed ninth in the event with her fourth top-15 finish of the season.
Along with Thomas, Jenna Zydanowicz and Caroline Towle took home All-Big East awards for their amazing performances on Saturday. Thomas, a standout junior from Dundas, Ontario, earned first-team honors after finishing in seventh place out of 99 total runners. Senior standouts Zydanowicz and Towle took home second-team honors as both runners placed in the top 20 overall.
For Thomas, this was the highest finish she’s ever had in the Big East championship and the third year in a row she took home an All-Big East award. Zydanowicz just missed a top-10 finish with a time of 20:55, but her 11th place finish was her best at the event since the 2021 championship. Towle came across the finish line at 21:12 for 16th place to earn All-Big East honors for the first time in her career.
Freshman Malin Rahm of Schaffhausen, Switzerland was the fourth Connecticut runner to cross the finish line with her 25th place finish and race time of 21:40. Senior Rachael Woodruff placed 31st with a 21:49 time to round out the first five UConn runners to cross the finish line.
In the program’s first season under legendary director Beth Alford-Sullivan, the Huskies finished with a top-five placement in every race they competed in. Connecticut began the season with a first-place finish in the Suffolk Short Classic and followed that up with a second-place effort in the Providence Friar Invitational. They placed fifth in the Battle in Beantown on Sept. 29 before concluding the regular season with another top-five placement in College Station, Texas. After their most recent finish in the Big East championship, UConn heads to New Rochelle, New York for the NCAA Northeast Regionals on Nov. 10.
