The Case Western Reserve University women's cross country team turned in a sixth-place finish behind eight career-best times at the 2026 University Athletic Association Cross Country Championship on Saturday, hosted by the University of Chicago at the St. James Farm Forest Preserve in Warrenville, Illinois.

Team Results

• The Spartans finished with a team score of 163.

• Top-ranked New York University won the meet with a score of 28, finishing well ahead of second-place and sixth-ranked University of Chicago (50 points). Placing third was eighth-ranked WashU with 97 points, followed by 11th-ranked Carnegie Mellon (106) and 13th-ranked Emory (142).

• Placing behind CWRU were Brandeis (178 points) and Rochester (194 points).

Individual Results

• All 10 of the CWRU runners in the women's 6K recorded season-best times, with eight notching career-best marks.

• Sophomore Halina Tompkins led the way for the Spartans, placing 19th overall out of 76 competitors with a time of 21:48.27, besting her previous career-best mark by over 29 seconds.

• Sophomore Reid Smith added a 31st-place finish in a time of 22:11.88, and was followed by sophomore Francesca Taracila in 37th place with a time of 22:20.22, both career-best marks.

• First-year runners Katie Straub (45th, 22:40.66) and Josslyn Wade (49th, 22:46.07) rounded out the team's scorers, each in a career-best time.

• The Spartans' displacers were junior Becca Liaw in 56th place with a career-best time of 23:08.95, and sophomore Elena Von Handorf in 60th place with a season-best time of 23:21.54.

• Junior Julia Walko was 62nd with a career-best mark of 23:28.73, junior Cecilia Postma was 64th in a season-best time of 23:32.73, and sophomore Maya DiPasquale added a career-best time of 23:35.19 to finish 65th overall.

• NYU's Josephine Dziedzic won the individual UAA Championship with a time of 20:36.45.

Spartan Notes

• Tompkins' time was the fastest by a Spartan in the 6K since Lauren Iagnemma's 21:43.6 at the NCAA Championship in 2024. 

• CWRU entered the meet ranked fifth in the Great Lakes Region.

• The Spartans' finish marked a one-place improvement in the team standings from last season.

Up Next

CWRU's top runners will turn their attention to the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship at Forest Akers East in East Lansing, Michigan, on Saturday, November 14. Meanwhile, the Spartans will also send a contingent of runners to the Wooster Twilight 5K Challenge in Wooster, Ohio, on Friday, November 6.