Sophomore in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Heads to NCAA Cross Country Championship

After earning all-regional honors on Friday at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, Rose Coats ’27, a student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering will head to the national championship this weekend.

Coats, who finished in eighth place on Friday, earned an automatic spot in the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championship, which will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin on Saturday, Nov. 23 in Madison. She became the sixth Terp in program history to qualify for the national championship, and the first since Emily Bracher in 2018. A historical archive is below:

Rose Coats – 2024 NCAA Championship
Emily Bracher – 2018 NCAA Championship
Alexandra Lucki - 2017 NCAA Championship
Julie Fricke – 2011 NCAA Championship
Rosalind Taylor – 1988 NCAA Championship
Jean Whitson – 1981 NCAA Championship

Both Taylor and Whitson, who competed in the first-ever NCAA women's cross country championship, earned All-American honors.

Coats twice set the Maryland program record for a 6K race including this past Friday at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional where she clocked 19 minutes, 53.8 seconds. That mark shaved just over six seconds off her previous record, the first sub-20 minute 6K time in program history, which she set at the Princeton Fall Classic.

She earned her bid to the NCAA Championship as one of the top four individuals to finish at a regional race outside of those on qualifying teams. Overall, the Big Ten placed five individual runners into the NCAA Championship: Michigan State's Rachel Forsyth (19:31.7), Penn State's Florence Caron (19:41.7), Nebraska's Ali Bainbridge (19:53.82), and Illinois' Halle Hill (19:55.74).

Published November 19, 2024