November 23, 2024
Smurla Earns All-America Honors at 2024 NCAA Division III National Championships
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. --- The Moravian University women’s cross country team had junior Tara Smurla earn All-America honors at the 2024 NCAA Division III National Championships hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center Saturday morning.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. --- The Moravian University women's cross country team had junior Tara Smurla earn All-America honors at the 2024 NCAA Division III National Championships hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center Saturday morning.
How It Happened
- Smurla was 29th of the 290 runners with a personal best time of 21:37.6 on the 6,000-meter course to take three seconds off her previous best in the ninth fastest time in program history
- Smurla was in All-America position, the top 40 runners, at each of the checkpoints in the race. She was in 38th at 1,000 meters in 3:12.2, 20th at the midway 3,000-meter mark in 10:13.9 and 20th at the final checkpoint of 5,000 meters in a time of 21:37.6
- Smurla, who was making her second appearance at the NCAA DIII National Championships, qualified as an individual by winning the Metro Regional last weekend
- In her first run at the NCAA Championships in 2023, Smurla finished 271st
- Smurla earned Moravian's 13th All-America and first since Meg Brockett in 2016. Overall, the Greyhounds have had nine student-athletes garner All-America honors in the women's cross country national championships with Heidi Wolfsberger being a three-time All-American and Tracy Wartman and Emily Sherzter earning honors twice
Quotable from Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann
- "We talked about how people aren't going to come back to you in this field, you need to be where you want to finish by the 1k. Tara executed this perfectly, putting herself in the top 40 from the start, then it was just about staying relaxed, running good tangents, and trusting all the hard work she's put in. I told her before the race that when she ran a 5:24 mile in the middle of a workout 2 weeks ago, I knew she was capable of this with the fitness she was showing, she just had to be in a spot to use it. What an incredible season for her, we couldn't be prouder!"
Up Next for the Greyhounds
- Season Complete
