HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall women's cross country team matched its best finish in Centennial Conference history with a third-place showing at the conference championship on Saturday. The Diplomats scored 92 points as a team to match the 1999 team's third-place finish.

Only Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore, who are the top ranked teams in their respective regions, were ahead of the Diplomats. F&M outpaced three other regionally-ranked teams in Haverford, Dickinson, and Gettysburg who rounded out the top six placers.

Franklin & Marshall was led by Tara Silverman who took third overall in the field with a time of 21:38.4. Her third-place finish makes her the 11th first-team All-Centennial Conference runner in program history. She joins Jamie Kendig (first in 1994, second in 1993, and third in 1995), and Sheena Crawley (third in 2012) as the only runners to place in the top three of the individual standings in program history.

For the second consecutive season, the Diplomats had two All-Centennial Conference selections as first-year Maren Blanks placed 11th with a time of 22:10.7 in her rookie campaign to earn second-team All-CC recognition. That time marked a personal best by over one minute from just two weeks earlier.

Katie Scott (22:59.4) and Courtney Carlson (23:21.1) took the 26th and 35th place finishes in the race, while Jordyn Collie earned a crucial 39th place showing in 23:46.0 as the team's fifth scorer to help edge out Haverford in the final standings. Carlson's time was also a personal best during her postseason debut for the Diplomats.

Emily Jones (24:01.9) was a strong sixth runner for the team as she placed 45th overall. Seniors Hana Hyman (24:10.2) and Georgia Hodgson (24:20.8) claimed the 48th and 51st positions. First-years Clara Pallordet (25:04.4) and Teagan Altman (25:39.9) were 68th and 83rd in their postseason debuts for the Diplomats. Hodgson, Pallordet, and Altman each registered personal best times at the championship meet.

With a strong start to the postseason, the Diplomats will now open NCAA competition as they return to racing on Saturday, November 14 with the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship to be held in Lock Haven. That race – which will ultimately decide team and individual qualifiers to the NCAA Division III Championship – is slated for an 11 a.m. start.