Junior Laura Paulsen will lead the Blue Jays in 2008.

Sept. 4, 2008

BALTIMORE, MD - Head coach Bobby Van Allen is in his ninth season at Johns Hopkins and continues to bring in a solid group of athletes. The Blue Jays finished third in the Centennial Conference last season and look to build on a core group of returners.

The Johns Hopkins women's cross country team returns its top seven from last year's national qualifying team. Junior Laura Paulsen (Lutherville, MD/Bryn Mawr), who finished 39th at the NCAA championships a year ago and in the top five in both the conference and region, will look to lead the women. Paulsen, who is coming off a lingering injury is back to full strength and should be a contender to win the individual conference championship as well as earn All-America honors. She will have a strong supporting cast in juniors Mira Patel (Moraga, CA/Campolindo) and Mary O'Grady (Anchorage, AK/South Anchorage) and seniors Rachel Hogen (Tarzana, CA/Harvard Westlake) and Emma Hiza (Nottingham, NH/Phillips Exeter Academy). All four finished in the top 30 at last year's conference meet and should all contend to be All-Conference selections this year. Sophomores Christina Valerio (West Milford, NJ/West Milford), Megan Brower (Cary, NC/Green Hope) and Cate White (Jordan, NY/Jordan-Elbridge) will provide added depth. Both could challenge for top five spots within the team.

"Cecilia Furlong (San Francisco, CA/University HS) has looked outstanding through our first two weeks of practice. She has proven that she has put in the off-season training and could be a big surprise within our conference."

Fellow freshmen Jackie Birkness (New Holland, PA), Kat Baselice (Park Ridge, NJ/Academy of the Holy Angels) Cassie Cummings (Bryn Mawr, PA/Academy of Notre Dame), and Charlotte Healy (Baltimore, MD) have all looked strong through early practices and will provide the team with solid depth. The team is currently ranked No. 17 in the nation and No. 1 in the NCAA Mideast region.

The Blue Jays open their season on September 5 at the Baltimore Metro Invitational and will look to upset Division I Towson and Loyola for their first ever championship. This unique meet will mimic the format of the World Cross Country Championships with the women running a 4k and 6k race. The Jays will be the only Division III team competing at the Colonial Inter-Regional Invitational on September 27. The meet is scheduled to include William & Mary, Virginia, Virginia Tech, LaSalle, American, and Georgetown. After a week off, the team will head to Orlando, FL for the Disney Cross Country Invitational on October 11 and conclude the regular season at the Gettysburg Invitational on October 18th. The championship portion of the schedule will feature the Centennial Conference Championship on November 1, where Hopkins will look to improve upon its third place finish a year ago. On November 15 the Blue Jays travel to Waynesburg, PA for the NCAA Mideast Regional Championship. Last season, the women finished third out of 46 at the regional championships to earn a spot at the NCAA Championship.

"We are very excited about our schedule," said Van Allen. "We should have our best women's team in the history of our program, and I feel this schedule will prepare us well to qualify for nationals."