STORRS, Conn.- The UConn women's cross country team begins their 2024 season in Poughkeepsie, New York on Saturday, with their first race at Vassar Farm for the Marist Season Opener.

Last season, the UConn women's cross country-team finished fourth in the BIG EAST championships in the women's 6k race. Senior Chloe Thomas finished 7^th out of 99 runners, with graduate student teammate Jenna Zydanowicz coming in 11th place. 

In the NCAA regionals, the Huskies finished in 6^th place as a team, out of 37 teams. Thomas secured 7^th place in the regionals, qualifying for the NCAA Championships, where she finished 99^th out of 247 finishers. Thomas, Zydanowicz, and graduate student Caroline Towle all secured All-Region honors.

At the start of the 2023 season, UConn won the Suffolk Short Course Classic with five runners in the top seven finishers. The Huskies also finished second in the Providence Friar Cross Country Invite, with a combined team time of 1:13:15 in the women's 4k race.

Looking ahead to the 2024 season, UConn will compete in four invitationals before the BIG East Championship that will take place in Leesburg, Virginia on November 2^nd. The next invite is the Spiked Shoe Invitational in University Park, PA on Friday, September 13^th. 

Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Beth Sullivan:

"We have had a great start to the year, our preseason training camp help prepare the squads for the upcoming seasons demands and I am excited to see how it all comes together throughout the fall.  The meet this week will be a small squad competition and we will open the full squads in mid-September.

The men's 6k race will start at 9:00 a.m. and the women's runners will toe the starting line for the 5k race at 9:45 a.m.