Sports
Accurso Named To Compete In National Championships
By: Erick Starkey
Posted on:
Senior Juli Accurso has been named to the competitors list for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships based on her first place finish at the Great Lakes Regional event.
On Nov. 15, Accurso won the Great Lakes Regional event with a school and personal record of 20:00.0 for a 6-kilometer event, putting her nine seconds above the second place competitor. The victory was the second of her career at this event, as she won the regional event in 2012 with a time of 20:07. She also finished sixth in the event as a sophomore.
Accurso has won other big events as well such as the Mid-American Conference individual title three years in a row, most recently on Nov. 2 with a time of 20:37.26.
Accurso is no stranger to the national stage as this will be the third time she will compete in the event. As a sophomore, in 2011, she finished 36th overall with a time of 20:26.3, setting a new school record at the time. In 2012, Accurso finished 38th in the national event with a time of 20:14.4. Both of these efforts earned her All-American honors.
Of the six meets that Accurso has competed in so far this season, she has won two and had two other top five finishes. In the Pre-National Meet earlier this season, which will boast much of the same runners as the National event, Accurso took the 20th spot out of the 340 runners that competed.
Accurso will face some of the same competition in the national event as she did the regional event. Michigan, Notre Dame, Butler, Michigan State and Wisconsin have all qualified for the national event as a team, and they are all from the Great Lakes Region.
Accurso was an individual qualifier from the region, and she will be joined by Katie Borchers from Ohio State, Victoria Voronko from Eastern Michigan and Clare Fischer from Xavier, all of which qualified individually from the region.
The NCAA Nationals meet will be held on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind., the same location as the Pre-National event. Accurso, along with the 31 teams who qualified and the other 37 individual qualifiers, will step off at 1:15 p.m.