ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Roberts Wesleyan women's cross country team is headed to Saint Leo, Florida for the 2021 NCAA Division II National Championships after placing third on Saturday at the East Region Championships.

With the top three teams earning a bid to the national championships the Redhawks squeaked into third place by just one point over Southern New Hampshire University. Roberts finished with 90 points.

"I think the women ran about as well as they could run," said head coach Andrew Dorr. "All of the girls went out conservatively and then moved up and executed it to perfection."

That race execution began with senior Bailey Gostomski leading the way for the Redhawks. Gostomski finished in 7th place with a time of 21:47.6 in the 6K race. Abigail Gostomski placed 11th in a time of 22:08.9 to be the second finisher for the Redhawks.

The five other runners ran some of the best races of their career to help Roberts earn the one point advantage over the fourth place spot. "They all put together good races," Dorr said. "As I try to talk about each runner, I think to myself, they all had a really good day."

The Redhawks made massive moves further into the race. At the 2,000m mark the five runners other than the Gostomski twins stayed in a pack. Acacia Barber, Kylee Odell, Maya Krishnan, Courtney Kacur and Jennifer Zambuto held positions 46, 47, 48, 49, and 51, respectively. At the 3,075m mark each of those runners had moved up significantly with the first four moving up 12 positions.

Barber finished 23rd (22:43.2), Odell 24th (22:43.9), Kacur 28th (22:56.5), Krishnan 37th (23:26.8) and Zambuto 40th (23:30.8).

"You could point to any one of our women's performances and say that was the key to the success of the day," Dorr said.

The women will move on to the NCAA Division II National Championships on Nov. 20 in Saint Leo, Fla. at the Abbey Course.