The William & Mary women's cross country team was a national surprise last fall, winning the region for the first time and placed 17th at NCAAs.  This fall, Director of Cross Country Stephen Walsh and Head Women's Cross Country Coach Natalie Hall lose only one runner from last year's national squad, and bring in a class of 10 talented freshmen.

Leading the way for the Tribe will be the senior class, including seven-time All-American Emily Stites (Wyoming, Ohio).  Stites missed nearly all of the fall season in 2014 with injury, but returned in time to lock up W&M's regional title and was 36th to lead the team at the NCAA Championships.  That led into a strong winter and spring, culminating in a third-place finish at the NCAA 10,000m Championships in June.  Stites returns this fall as one of the top runners in the nation, and a favorite to contend for a top-10 finish in November.

Also back is redshirt-senior Carolyn Hennessey (Herndon, Va.), last fall's CAA Runner of the Year.  Hennessey led W&M all season long, including the individual title at the CAA Championships, and was runner-up at the Southeast Regional.  She'll be looking for redemption, however, for her one off day all fall that happened at the NCAA Championships.  Fellow senior Meghan McGovern (North Wales, Pa.) has been one of the Tribe's steadiest runners for the past three years, and should once again appear consistently in the scoring five for the Green and Gold.  McGovern has two all-region honors in the last two years, and will be looking to break into the national top-40 in her final campaign.

Youngsters have also made an impact for the Tribe recently, with three freshmen part of the traveling squad at NCAAs.  Regan Rome (Dallas, Pa.) was the CAA Rookie of the Year in cross country, and was the fourth-rated freshmen at last fall's NCAA Championships.  She went on to represent Team USA at the Great Edinburgh XC Challenge in January, and qualified for the NCAA semifinals outdoors at 5,000m.  Molly Breidenbaugh (Mechanicsville, Va.) was consistently W&M's fourth or fifth runner last fall, a position she'll be fighting to retain this fall.  She clinched the Tribe's CAA title in 15th place, and was also fifth at the NCAA Championships for W&M. Audrey Gordon (Pittsburgh, Pa.) also spent much of the year in the varsity line-up, and was seventh on the regional title team before traveling to NCAAs as the alternate runner.  She redshirted the winter and spring, and will be looking to solidify her spot in the starting line-up this fall.

Three veterans also enter the season as top candidates to finish out the varsity line-up.  Senior Leanna Eisenman (Front Royal, Va.) was the alternate at regionals in 2014, and made her NCAA debut at the national meet where she was the Tribe's sixth runner.  Eisenman was also sixth for W&M at the CAA Championships, finishing a career-best 17th.  Redshirt-sophomore Rachel Rabbitt (Yorktown, Va.) had several strong performances early in the 2014 cross country season, and will look to carry that into the championship portion of the schedule this fall.  Redshirt-sophomore McCall Ledgett (Carlisle, Pa.) was one of the more consistent runners on the "B" squad last year, but a strong summer and start to fall workouts has impressed both her coaches and teammates, and she could run her way onto the CAA squad or even higher as the year progresses.

The freshmen class boasts a number of state titles and All-American honors already, in one of the deepest classes in recent years.  Hope Bloxom (Yorktown, Va.) was named the Runner of the Year by the Daily Press after taking fifth at the Virginia State Championships in 2014, and Deirdre Casey (Princeton Junction, N.J.) was a five-time state track champion in New Jersey who led her team to the cross country title while finishing sixth as a senior.  Kathryn Eng (Arlington, Va.) is the latest in a long line of Washington-Lee HS standouts to attend W&M, and led the Generals to a runner-up finish in cross country last fall.  Sarah Goodrich (Richmond, Va.) twice earned all-state cross country honors for Godwin High, and was the Virginia state champion at 3,200m indoors in 2015.  Xaveria Hawvermale (Fairfax, Va.) ran for Chantilly HS and was 10th at the state championships as a junior and fourth in the 3,200m outdoors that year as well.

Also joining the team is Abbey Hillerich (Dover, Mass.), a miler who was named all-league in cross country each of the last three years by the Boston Globe and twice earned All-New England honors.  Natalie Marcotullio (Westfield, N.J.) was the conference champion in cross country last fall, and Liz Newman (Basking Ridge, N.J.) was a two-time prep All-American who led her team to third in the state and fourth at the N.J. Meet of Champions in 2014.  Freshman Rachel Snyder (Purcellville, Va.) earned five all-state honors at Loudoun Valley HS, including second-team honors in cross country in 2014 as her team finished second overall.  Anna Wasko (Leesburg, Va.) led Tuscarora HS to the Virginia state title in 2014 while finishing fifth individually, and was named the Female Athlete of the Year by the VHSL.