TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Villanova placed three runners inside the top 100 for the first time in four years and finished the season on a strong note with a 27^th place team finish at the 2021 Division I Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park on Saturday morning. After earning one of the last at-large spots to the championship field the Wildcats made the most of their opportunity and beat their ranking entering the meet by four spots.
 
The top three runners in the Villanova lineup have been the team's strength all season and they crossed the finish line within three seconds of each other in Saturday's national championship. Freshman Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) led the way with a 93^rd place finish in her NCAA debut and crossed the finish line with a time of 20:27.5 on the 6,000 meter course. Junior Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) was close behind her in 97^th place with a time of 20:29.1 and senior Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) came in 99^th in 20:30.4.
 
One of the unique characteristics of the course at Apalachee Regional Park is known as "The Wall" – a 400-meter downhill finish which led both to fast times as well opportunities for late movement in the pack of runners. Official splits from the race showed that Olivere passed 37 runners in the final kilometer of the race to get into the top 100 at the finish line. It was the fourth career NCAA Championships race for Olivere, who has been a veteran presence on a young Wildcats roster. She has posted top-100 finishes at the NCAA Championships in each of the last three seasons.
 
Sigfstead and Smith each ran steady races from start to finish in a crowded field of runners. It was the freshman Sigfstead who was the top Villanova finisher for the second time this season and she became the Wildcats first true freshman to post a top-100 finish at the NCAA Championships since Emily Lipari came in 94^th on the 2009 national championship team. Smith moved up 44 spots from where she finished as a true freshman two years ago.
 
Junior Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) and graduate student McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.) were the fourth and fifth scoring runners for Villanova. Helwigh crossed the finish line in 21:29.5 and placed 222^nd overall, while Keegan was two spots back and recorded a time of 21:33.8. The spread between the Wildcats five scorers was just 66 seconds.
 
Rounding out the Villanova lineup were redshirt freshman Elizabeth Vaughn (Dayton, Ohio) and freshman Emily Robinson (Rogers, Ark.) who were each running in their first career NCAA Championships race. Vaughn came in 248^th in the field in 22:46.9 and Robinson was the next runner behind her in 22:51.6.
 
The team standing of 27^th place put the Wildcats ahead of BIG EAST foe Butler who had finished 13 points in front of Villanova at the BIG EAST Championships last month. Saturday's national championship was a fulfilling finish to the Fall for a young Wildcats team which came in fourth at the conference meet and third at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional last week.
 
Villanova earned just enough points in competition through the season to earn an at-large berth to the national meet. This year marked the sixth time in the last seven seasons and the 32^nd time overall that the Wildcats earned a team bid to the NCAA Championships. Only four programs have made more appearances than 32 since the women's championships began in 1982 and Villanova still has won more national championships (nine) all-time in women's cross country than any other school.