Lady Braves Capture Five Personal-Bests At Regionals

CHARLOTTE- Senior Livia Mahaffie led the UNCP women's cross country team to an overall eighth place finish at the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Championship as she registered a personal-best time in the 6K and overall 30th place finish on Saturday morning at McAlpine Park hosted by Queens University of Charlotte.

Mahaffie has been the top runner for UNCP this season, and dropped 25 seconds off her time from two weeks prior at the Peach Belt Conference Championship. She crossed the finish line with a time of 23:24.4, while junior Annette Sem followed with a time of 23:50.1 to tallying a new personal-best in the race. 

Annette Sem collected her previous personal-record more than a year ago at the UNCP Invitational. She dropped more than a minute for a 44th place finish in the race. The third place finisher for the Lady Braves, Ashlee Doughty, set a new personal-record in the race as she posted a 47th place finish with a time of 23:51.9, which was less than a minute faster than her previous time set in 2010 at the region championships.

Freshman Carrie Blankenship took more than 50 seconds off her personal-best time in the 6K as she posted a time of 23:58.2 to finished 53rd overall and fourth on the squad. Kendra Dorn and Megan Carney crossed the finish line with time of 24:15.8 and 25:01.8, respectively.

Newcomer Julie Sem clipped more than 30 seconds off her prior personal-best to cross the finish line with a time of 25:14.8.

The 6k race was primarily run on limestone with the Black and Gold finishing eighth out of 26 teams. UNCP collected 234 points and was the fourth PBC team to finish the race.

Queens (N.C.) and Montevallo advance to the 2011 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championship race after finishing first (39 points) and second (140 points), respectively. The 2011 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships takes place on November 19 in Spokane, Wash., at Plantes Ferry Athletic Complex. 

UNCP Results:
- Livia Mahaffie (30th, 23:24.4)
- Annette Sem (44th, 23:50.1)
- Ashlee Doughty (47th, 23:51.9)
- Carrie Blankenship (53rd, 23:58.2)
- Kendra Dorn (66th, 24:15.8)
- Megan Carney (101st, 25:01.8)
- Julie Sem (107th, 25:14.8)