Vinh Places 80th At NCAA Championships

Terrier sophomore Bolpar Vinh (Kingston, ONT) brought the curtain down on her cross country season and the overall season for the B.U. women's team when she finished 80th in a field of 255 at the NCAA Division 1 Championships which were held November 20th at Iowa State University.

Vinh was timed in 21:50 over the six-kilometer course. Colorado's Kara Grgas-Wheeler was the individual winner in a time of 20:30.

Vinh qualified for the nationals when she finished 11th at the Northeast Regionals on November 11th.

Her efforts at the NCAAs capped off an excellent season for the Terrier sophomore.

She opened the year by finishing second to teammate junior Katie Ireland (Boston) at the meet with UMass/Amherst, Vermont, Central Connecticut, and Maine.

In her next outing, according to cross country coach Bruce Lehane, she "ran the race of her career," at least to that point, when she finished seventh at the Meet of Champions hosted by Iona. Her performance helped lead the Terriers to a seventh-place team finish.

Her next outing took her to the Pre-National Meet that was hosted by Iowa State. It provided her with her first look at the course that was to be used for the NCAAs. At the pre-Nationals, she was the top Terrier finisher, as he wound up 43rd. As a team, the Terriers finished a rather disappointing 24th.

Vinh, and her teammates bounced back in their next meet-the America East championships. There, she paced the Terriers to their fifth straight America East team title, and 10th in 11 years when she finished first in a time of 21:59.59, which was 21 seconds faster than runnerup Michele Palmer of the University of Vermont.

Her final tuneup before the NCAAs came at the Northeast Regionals where she was timed in 20:59.9.