LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall women's cross country team returns all seven of its top finishers for the 2024 postseason after the Diplomats placed sixth at the Centennial Conference Championship and 12th at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship. After building towards an experienced team in recent seasons, the Diplomats have four seniors and four juniors amongst the 11-member team who will look to jump back into the regional rankings this coming fall. The team has posted some of its strongest seasons in recent history and will look to continue that this fall. The 2025 season begins on Friday, August 29 with the Franklin & Invitational.
Athletes to Watch
Junior Katie Scott has been one of the Diplomats' top runners since she arrived on campus and owns a pair of top 50 finishes at the regional championships during her first two seasons. She additionally placed a career-best 26th individually at the conference championship last year and has broken the 23-minute mark on a 6,000 meter course multiple times, including a career-best mark of 22:40.0. Sophomore Tara Silverman broke the 23-minute mark with a personal best time of 22:50.7 at the regional championship during her rookie campaign on her way to a 49th place finish in that championship event. She will look for even faster times in her second season with the Diplomats. Senior Annalise Kauffman broke through the 23-minute barrier during a career-best 51st-place finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regional. The most experienced runner on F&M's team only got better as she transitioned into the track season, which included an individual gold medal in the 800 meters this past spring.
Junior Jordyn Collie set her personal best time at the regional championship with a mark of 23:21.4 during her first season on the cross country team and will now have that year of added experience heading into the 2025 campaign. Junior Georgia Hodgson and senior Abby Bachman added to a number of personal bests at the regional championship when both of those runners came in under 25 minutes on the 6,000 meter course. Both of those individuals were routine scorers for Franklin & Marshall a season ago. Hana Hyman was the team's seventh runner at the regional championships last year and has two years of regional championship experience behind her heading into her junior season.
Seniors Anna Atticks and Lucy Olsen have also competed in the regional championships during their careers and have broken the 26-minute mark. Atticks was limited to just two races in 2024 and will look for a bigger impact this coming fall. Olsen returns to the squad after studying abroad in the fall of 2024 before returning to her team during the track & field season. Sophomore Emily Jones was limited to just two races during her rookie campaign, but did have a top 10 finish during one of those opening events at the F&M Invitational. With talented experience returning, first-year Sophia Bloom (Toms River, N.J.) will add her talents to the mix when the team gets its season underway.
In the Polls
The Diplomats were picked for a sixth-place finish in the conference according to a preseason vote of the Centennial's head coaches. The Diplomats improved on preseason expectations a year ago and will look to do so again this year. F&M has placed sixth in the conference during three of the last four seasons, with its highest placement at the conference meet being a fifth-place showing during the 2019 championship. Johns Hopkins, Gettysburg, Swarthmore, Dickinson, and Haverford were the top five teams in the preseason poll and last year's conference championship that the Diplomats will be looking to chase down this year. The complete Centennial Conference Preseason Poll is available here.
The Road Ahead
The 2025 season will have a very familiar look as the Diplomats have their eyes towards the postseason. The team will compete in four regular season meets before the postseason gets underway in early November. Following the home-opening meet, F&M will travel to Gettysburg twice for the Little Three (Sept. 5) and Gettysburg Invitational (Oct. 18) meets. In between those events, the team will race at the prestigious Paul Short Run on Friday, October 3. Franklin & Marshall will be well prepared for the postseason as Gettysburg serves as the host of the 2025 Centennial Conference Championship while Newville, Pa. is once again the site of the regional championship. Qualified teams and individuals will line up for the NCAA Division III National Championship on Saturday, November 22 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Follow Along (Social Media)
All of your favorite Diplomat athletic teams are available on social media. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram, like them on Facebook.
