The William and Mary women's cross country team put together one of the best seasons in school history in 2013, winning the Colonial Athletic Association title in history-making fashion and advancing to the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row.  Director of Track and Field and cross country Stephen Walsh and new women's coach Natalie Hall has the luxury of bringing back five of the women from that 12th-place team, including one of the top young distance runners in the nation.  The Tribe's quest will also be helped by the return of 12 more veterans, and the addition of seven highly talented newcomers.

Top Five
The likely top five returners all have tremendous experience at the conference and regional levels, and all ran at the NCAA Championships last fall.  Leading the way is junior Emily Stites, the reigning Southeast Regional champion and Athlete of the Year.  A four-time All-American and two-time national champion, Stites was 23rd in cross country her freshman year before ranking just outside the top-40 last year in the wind and mud.  On the track, she continued to establish herself as one of the nation's top athletes, running lifetime-bests at every distance from 1,500m through the 10,000m during the track seasons and adding a pair of All-American honors to her resume.  Indoors, Stites ran 15:43 in the 5,000m to qualify for the NCAA Championships, where she placed fifth in the nation.  Outdoors, she broke the school record at 10,000m by more than a minute with her 32:41 at Mt. SAC, and went on to finish 10th overall at the NCAA outdoor championships in the event.

Classmate Meghan McGovern is the second-leading returner, after she earned all-region honors for the first time last fall.  The fourth-place finisher at the CAA Championships, McGovern improved to third on the team at the regional to finish 12th overall, and finished just outside the top-100 at nationals.  On the track, she qualified for the ECAC Championships indoors at both 3,000m and 5,000m, before taking fourth in the outdoor meet for All-East honors.  McGovern also defended her CAA title at 5,000m in a meet-record time, and qualified for the NCAA Semifinals for the second year in a row.  This summer, she was voted to be one of the team captains.

Senior Dylan Hassett had a fall in 2013 that many runners would be proud to have, and then blew it out of the water with a strong championship season in the spring.  In cross country, she completed the first-ever sweep of the CAA Championships with her fifth-place showing, and was fifth on the team again at the Southeast Regional and sixth at NCAAs.  She was an ECAC 5,000m qualifier indoors, and then outdoors won two of her three races in May.  First, she claimed the CAA title at 10,000m, her first, and then two weeks later pulled off the upset to win the ECAC Championship as well.  That run of good fortune sent her to the NCAA Semifinals for the second year in a row, where she improved a team-best 12 places over seed.

Hassett's classmate Carolyn Hennessey finished the spring just outside of the cutoff for NCAAs, and used that near-miss as motivation for her best summer of training yet.  She earned all-conference honors with a seventh-place finish at the CAA Championships, and was sixth on the team again at regionals before improving to fifth for W&M at the NCAA Championships.  Indoors, Hennessey had the meet of her life at the ECAC Championships, finishing fourth in the 5,000m and leading the Tribe's DMR to a runner-up finish and silver medal.

Rounding out the top returners is junior Erica Amatori.  She'll be looking to move up the team depth chart this fall after being the consistent No. 7 throughout the championship season.  Amatori was part of the all-conference squad by finishing 10th overall at the CAA meet, before running at the regional and NCAA Championships for the first time.  On the track, she qualified for both the 3,000m and 5,000m indoors, before moving up to 10,000m outdoors where she took fourth at the CAA Championships.

Upperclassmen
W&M also enjoys the luxury of having seven more upperclassmen waiting in the wings, and ready to step up and lead the team on the trails as well as in the locker room.  Senior Heather Clagett was voted by her teammates to be one of the team captains this year, and is coming off her best all-around year in 2013-14.  In cross country, she was one of the leaders of the Tribe's second squad, improving through every meet and finishing in the top 10 at the CNU Invitational.  On the track, she ran a lifetime-best in the 1,500m, and made the CAA Championships squad for the first time.

The junior duo of Becca Eudailey and Leanna Eisenman are strong candidates to make their third-straight CAA Championship teams this fall.  Eudailey made a massive jump last year, up 26 spots to finish 20th overall in cross country, and went on to win the 3,000m at CNU in late April on the track.  Eisenman has finished 21st in cross country each of the past two years, and will look to improve on that and challenge for All-CAA accolades this year.  Sarah Garratt is a middle-distance focused athlete (like Clagett), but has the strength for cross country as well finishing 23rd at the CNU Invitational last fall.

Sophomores
The sophomore class may just have the biggest breakout potential out of the whole team, with all five returning veterans having redshirted last fall.  Molly Applegate had the most successful track season of the class, qualifying for the ECAC Championships indoors at 5,000m.  In addition to her long-distance duties, she also ran the 800m for the Tribe's DMR, earning All-East honors and a silver medal as the team finished second.  Outdoors, she qualified for the U.S. Junior Championships in multiple events, and finished fourth at the CAA Championships in her first-ever 3,000m steeplechase.

Rachel Rabbitt finished right behind Applegate in that steeplechase at the conference meet, and had the two best cross country performances in the fall.  Racing unattached, the Yorktown native took third at the CNU Invitational, and sixth at the W&M Invitational.  Perhaps one of the more intriguing additions this year is sophomore transfer Michaela Quinn, from Worrigee, New South Wales, in Australia.  Quinn was 25th at the 2013 World Junior Championships (finishing two places behind Stites), and started last fall at Mississippi.  She was the Rebels' top runner and SEC Freshman of the Week at both the UVA Invitational and Pre-Nationals, before choosing to return home for the rest of the year.  While back in Australia, Quinn qualified for the World Junior Track Championships in the 5,000m, running 16:22 to take third at the Australian Championships.

Freshmen
The six members of W&M's freshman class include two Footlocker Finalists in Regan Rome and Molly Briedenbaugh.  Rome was actually a two-time Finalist, and medaled at the Pennsylvania state championships in 11 out of 12 seasons in high school.  As a senior, she finished second in the state in cross country, the indoor 3,000m, and the outdoor 3,200m; and she finished third in the invitational 3,000m at the Penn Relays.  Briedenbaugh ran for Trinity Episcopal in Richmond, and won the past two state cross country titles before making the Footlocker XC Finals in 2013.  She was the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Indoor Track Runner of the Year in 2014, after sweeping the state championships at 1,600m and 3,200m.  Audrey Gordon is another Pennsylvania native, running for Mt. Lebanon HS in Pittsburgh.  She was ninth at the PIAA state meet her senior year in both the 1,600m and the 4x800m relay.  Lindsay Myers ran for Princeton HS in Ohio, where she was the conference Runner of the Year in cross country her senior year.