Wingate, N.C. – Avery Shope led North Greenville as the Crusaders finished in 14^th place finish at the NCAA Southeast Championship on Saturday afternoon. 
 
North Greenville finished the race with an average time of 25:05. Wingate Bulldogs claimed the region title with an average of 22:25. Anderson finished in second place Followed by Catawba, Flagler, and Lenoir-Rhyne to round out the top five finishers. 
 
Avery Shope was North Greenville's top qualifier, crossing the finish line in 23:56. She finished her first NCAA Regional in 48^th place. Juliana Gonzalez finished 69^th overall and was NGU's second finisher. She clocked in at 24:47 overall. 
 
Riley Nicholson finished 81^st overall while Rebekah Haddad finished in 90^th. Nicholson ran the 6K race in 25:19 followed by Haddad with a time of 25:36. Paris Alsup finished 95^th with a time of 25:46. 
 
Zoie Justice stopped the clock at 26:15 while Brianna Miller finished 108^th with a time of 26:31. 
 
From Coach Stober 
 
"Our women ran really well today. I think today was the first time that we had an all freshman lineup at a regional meet in program history. Even though this was their first time competing at a NCAA DII Region meet, they were not intimidated and they competed well against the best teams in our region. 
 
We were once again led by Avery Shope. Avery ran a PB and became just the third woman in program history to run under 24 minutes for a 6K. Juliana ran #2 for us and ran right at her PB on what I would consider the slowest course that we've run all season. Riley really stepped up for us today. She had to drop out of the conference meet just a couple of weeks ago due to sickness. But she had a great comeback race today, and she ended up running a massive PB. Beka was our #4 and she also ran close to her PB. She's ran consistently well for us all season. Paris was another one of our women that was sick going into the conference meet a couple of weeks ago and wasn't able to run. But she also stepped up for us today in a big way, running as our final scorer. Zoie didn't have the race that she was hoping for today, but she truly has had a phenomenal freshman season. Bri rounded out our top 7 with a solid performance. I'm really proud of the progress that I've seen from her this season. 
 
This might be the best overall team race that we've had all season on the women's side. Everyone ran well across the board. We ended up beating a team in our conference that beat us a couple of weeks ago at the conference meet. We knew we were capable of finishing higher as a team at conference, but we just had some unfortunate sickness leading up to that meet. It was nice to be able to finish the season with a relatively healthy top 7. 
 
This concludes our 2022 cross country season. It's been a long season due to the festival year. But I'm really proud of how our team (both women and men) trained hard all summer and all season and how they competed as well. We've got a great group of young people that makes up our team. I'm so proud of who they are and who we are as a team. 
 
I know that we are all ready for a short break prior to starting back up for track season which will be here before we know it."