SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Junior Lucy Kreipke (Princeton, NJ/Princeton) capped a breakthrough season for Smith College women's cross country with a gutsy run at the 2025 NCAA Division III Championship on Saturday morning at the Roger Milkin Cross Country Course. Racing as one of just 70 individual qualifiers in a national field of nearly 300 runners, Kreipke covered the 6K course in 23:52.6 to place 231st overall. 

Kreipke positioned herself well from the gun, coming through the opening kilometer in 3:27.4 inside the top 170 runners before settling into the heart of the pack. She passed 2K in 7:18.8 and hit 3K in 11:19.4 as the field surged around her on Spartanburg's rolling terrain. Still battling late, the junior crossed 5K in 19:40.1 and closed strong down the final straightaway to stop the clock at 23:52.6—less than four minutes behind individual national champion Audrey Maclean of Middlebury (20:16.8) on a day that saw NYU claim the team title. 

The performance marked Kreipke's second consecutive NCAA Championship appearance, after she debuted on the national stage in Terre Haute last fall, and continued a historic stretch for the Bears' distance program. This season, she earned All-Region honors and led Smith to an 11th-place team finish at the NCAA Mideast Regional—just one point shy of the top 10—while also collecting All-NEWMAC recognition and front-running the Bears through one of the deepest conference fields in Division III.

About Smith Athletics: Smith College is a NCAA Division III member of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference that sponsors 11 intercollegiate sports. For more information log onto GoSmithBears.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram