Newport News, Va. – Senior Lilly Duarte led the Southwestern University cross country teams with a record finish that earned her a spot at the NCAA National Championship Saturday at the NCAA Region Championships.

Duarte raced to a top 10 finish as she was ninth in the field to earn her spot at the national championships in Hanover, Ind., later this month. The senior also broke the Southwestern record in the race with a time of 22:47.29.

Her finish gave Southwestern a top 20 finish with over 30 teams competing in the region while Trinity's Maddie Murphy took home the individual title and helped the Tigers to a first place team finish as well.

Kara Koinis finished just two minutes behind Duarte to finish in the top 70 with a time of 24:36.36 as she was followed by Emily Ammon. Ammon crossed the finish line just out of the top 100.

On the men's side the Pirates got their top finish from sophomore Alex Medrano. Medrano crossed the finish line with a time of 27:22.37 to finish 74th.

A pair of Southwestern runners finished just outside of the top 100 with Joe Sponsel and Alec Bergerson. Sponsel raced to a time of 28:34.48 while Bergerson checked in a time of 29:29.93 in a field of over 170 runners.

Bridgewater (Va.) took home the men's team title while John Kieffer of Centre raced to a time of 24:32.82 as the top individual.