DALLAS, PA (August 29, 2025) — Senior Cecilia Chipriano led the King's College women's cross country team to a fifth-place finish out of 10 teams in their season debut at the Misericordia Invitational on Friday evening.

Chipriano set the tone early for King's, clocking a 17:13.60 to place 21st overall on the 4,000-meter course at Letterkenny Fields. Sophomore Lindsey Eyer followed in 23rd with a time of 17:22.60, while first year Evelyn Sahd made a strong collegiate debut in 29th in 18:03.80. Graduate student Kat Smith was next for the Monarchs in 31st with a time of 18:15.50, and junior Mara Ryan rounded out the scoring runners in 37th at 18:29.60.

As a team, King's posted a cumulative time of 1:29:24.90 with an average of 17:53.00 per runner to earn 141 points.

King's had some other strong performances on opening day as Ava Butcher placed 38th overall in 18:33.80, while Shelby Shepanski also placed in the top-50 out of the 82 runners, taking 44th in 19:32.40. Sarah Hartzell and Grace Visneski topped off the team's efforts, as Hartzell crossed in 20:41.80 with Visneski posting a time of 21:34.60.

The Monarchs will return to action on Friday, September 13th at 10:15 a.m. in the Cougar Classic, hosted again by Misericordia University.