Katie Navarre (left) and Kelsey Pence (right) led Denison at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.

Sophomore runner Katie Navarre (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) placed third overall at the 2008 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional cross country championship on Saturday in Westerville, Ohio.

The third place finish by Navarre is the best female performance at the Great Lakes Regional in the history of Denison women's cross country, breaking Elaine Binkley's fifth place finish in 2004.  Navarre covered the 6K course in 22:01.39 and was just 10 second off the winning pace set by Oberlin's Joanna Johnson.

As a team the Big Red placed 15th out of 34 schools with 417 points.  Following Navarre in 74th place was junior Kelsey Pence (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North) who crossed in 24:33.47.  She was followed in 94th place by Kirby Mosenthal (Briarcliff, N.Y./Irvington) and her time of 24:51.46.

The final two scoring runners for DU were Ashley Putnam (North East, Pa./North East) and Kelly McCallin (Canton, Ohio/St. Thomas Aquinas) who placed 115th and 131st out of the field of 233 runners, respectively.

Thanks to her performance, Navarre will compete next Saturday (Nov. 22) at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship in Hanover, Ind.

Regional Results [htm]