Stonehill Women's Cross Country and Track & Field Continue NE10 Title Dominance

Posted: Sep 23, 2020

The Stonehill College women’s cross country and track & field programs have enjoyed a historic run of success, combining to win 19 of the last 20 Northeast-10 Conference Championships across the three programs. The three Skyhawk teams have highlighted this stretch with 14-straight NE10 Championships at the conclusion of the 2020 NE10 Indoor Championship in Boston. Under the guidance of 2019 USTFCCCA Hall of Fame head coach Karen Boen, and last winter Michael Delgado for the indoor championship, Stonehill’s teams have developed a culture and tradition that is unmatched in NE10 history.

Stonehill surpassed former NE10 member Springfield College in 2015 when they won their 14^th women’s cross country championship and have now topped the charts with their 18^th championship in 2019. Stonehill sits second in NE10 history with seven indoor track & field championships, two shy of the NE10 record, and third with five outdoor titles, just one shy of the NE10 mark. The Skyhawks have currently won 11-straight women’s cross country championships, seven-consecutive women’s indoor and four-straight women’s outdoor track & field titles.

Maria Curit, ’15 keyed the start of Stonehill’s run in track & field as a four-time All-American. She collected All-America honors three times in the 800-meter run, capped by a career-best fourth place finish at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championship in a program-record 2:06.48. It marked her second All-America honors for the outdoor season, to go with an indoor All-America award in the 800m and 4x400m relay. Curit still holds ten Stonehill records and finished her career with five NE10 individual event titles.
Nicole Borofski ’17 won Stonehill’s first individual cross country championship in 13 years during the 2015 season as the Skyhawks won its seventh-straight cross country title and 14^th in program history with a 93-point margin over Bentley University.
Borofski, an eight-time All American, went on to have a storied career as she participated in ten NCAA Division II Championships over her four years as well as being the individual champion at the New England Cross Country Championships in 2016, the NE10 Cross Country Championships twice (2015 & 2016), the NCAA Division II Cross Country East Regional Championship twice (2015 & 2016), and 12 NE10 Track & Field event titles.
Stonehill’s relay teams have developed a strong showing at NE10 Championships, as the 4000-meter distance medley relay has won five of the last seven titles at the NE10 Indoor Championships. The Skyhawks DMR has qualified for the NCAA Championships four times in the last five years. The quartet of Jordan Gray ‘16, Erin Carberry ‘16, Aisha McAdams ‘17, and Borofski earned All-America accolades at the 2016 Championship with a sixth-place finish in a school record time of 11:35.05.
Trisha Pierson ’16, who won three shot put NE10 titles in her career, was also tabbed as a CoSIDA Academic All-American^® twice, the first women’s cross country or track & field student-athlete to earn the academic honor two times, and Academic All-District^® honors three times.
Stonehill 4x800-meter relay teams traditionally score points for the team, with the indoor relay winning ten titles in the past 13 NE10 Championships - three of them coming recently in 2016, 2017, and 2019. During the outdoor season, Stonehill has earned the NE10 event title in four of the last five championships.
Stonehill won its first 4x100-meter relay race at the 2018 NE10 Outdoor Championship with Sinead O’Brien ’20, Emily Polvere ‘18, Alison Tobin ’18, and Olivia Dexter ’19.
Olivia Dexter ‘19, who currently is part of six school records, totaled four NE10 individual titles over her career, including two 100-meter, a 200-meter, and a 4x100-meter relay crown. Her freshman year she was tabbed as the 2016 NE10 Track Rookie of the Year.
Stonehill’s mid-distance crew from the past four years, produced three 800-meter titles, with two from Aisha McAdams ‘17 and one from Jillian Caiazzi ‘19 and four 1500-meter championships, including three from Borofski and one from Emily Knox ’18.
Emily Knox ‘18 collected All-America honors after finishing 27^th at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Knox got to this point after being named the 2017 NE10 Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year taking home her first individual title at the Championship, and Stonehill’s third-straight individual title.
Anna Lastra ’20 led a sweep of the top three individual positions at the 2018 NE10 Cross Country Championship making it the program’s fourth-straight individual title. Sam Curtin, who is currently a senior, who went on to win the 2019 NCAA East Regional individual Championship, placed second, while Mackenzie Cyr ‘19, finished third.
Allison Tobin ’18 is Stonehill’s most recent All-American, becoming the Skyhawks’s first women’s field athlete to earn All-America status at the 2018 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships. She placed 11^th in the pole vault and currently holds the indoor school record of 11 feet, 10 inches and the outdoor mark of 12 feet, 9 inches.
During Stonehill’s eighth-straight NE10 Championship in 2018, Tobin led a sweep of the top three places during both the indoor and outdoor championships. The Skyhawks would match that feat during the indoor championships in 2020, led by current sophomore Haley Lightbody, the NE10 Field Rookie of the Year.

Stonehill Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Links of Note:

ABOUT THE NE10
Beginning its 40th anniversary season, the NE10 is an association of 14 diverse institutions serving student-athletes across 24 NCAA Division II sports. Together we build brilliant futures by embracing the journey of every student-athlete.

Each year, 4,500 of those student-athletes compete in conference championships in 24 sports, making the NE10 the largest DII conference in the country in terms of sport sponsorship. Leading the way in the classroom, on the field and within the community, the NE10 is proud of its comprehensive program and the experience it provides student-athletes.