NEW ORLEANS, La.- The Colby-Sawyer women's cross country team earned its first regional ranking is school history on Tuesday. The Chargers competed last weekend at UMass Dartmouth, where they beat regionally ranked University of New England.

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Junior Shannon O' Connell (Peabody, Mass.) led the charge for Colby-Sawyer, finishing  the 5K course with a time of 19:34.21. First-year Samantha Carus (Brownfield, Maine) ran the course over a minute faster than her pervious best time as Charger. She finished with a time of 19:38.50.

"I am very proud of how the women raced at UMass Dartmouth for most of them it was their first big collegiate meet," said head coach Ryan O'Connell. "Knocking off a regionally ranked team is a great step for our young team. They have been improving every week and I couldn't be prouder of how they have come together as a group. This group of young women are very determined and are some of the toughest athletes I have ever coached. We will enjoy this but we are already moving on to Keene State and preparing for the next meet and this group has bigger goals they are trying to accomplish."  

The Chargers will return to action on Saturday, October 2 at Keene State.