LANCASTER, Pa. – For the first time since 1993, the Franklin & Marshall women's cross country team won the Little Three championship. The win marked the Diplomats' ninth overall since the race was first contested in the fall of 1981. The Diplomats put all five of their scoring runners in the top ten and finished with 26 points to outpace both Dickinson (40 points) and Gettysburg (56 points).

The victory was even more impressive as F&M's competition came into the meet ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Franklin & Marshall had the only two finishers under 12 minutes on the two-mile course as Tara Silverman took home the top spot (11:54.0), while first-year Maren Blanks (11:54.6) was less than a second off of her pace in the runner-up spot.

F&M had its third runner across the line before either of its rivals had a second runner to the line as Emily Jones finished with a time of 12:21.9. First-year Courtney Carlson (12:37.5) and senior Katie Scott (12:41.4) officially clinched the team title with their finishes among the top 10 runners.

Senior Jordyn Collie was the sixth Diplomat to break the 13-minute mark as she finished in a time of 12:58.5, with classmate Hana Hyman finishing in the team's seventh position with a mark of 13:00.1. Eleven Diplomats in total took the course in the first event of the season, with Georgia Hodgson (13:22.6), Teagan Altman (13:37.4), Clara Pallordet (14:03.9), and Layli Katirai (14:34.6) also racing for the winning side.

With a strong start to the season, the Diplomats will now have just under two weeks before they travel to Dickinson for the Long-Short Invitational that is scheduled for Saturday, September 12.