HOPKINTON, NH (November 15, 2025) – The Tufts University women's cross country team ran its best race of the season on Saturday and upset MIT to win the NCAA East Region Championship at Hopkinton Fairgrounds.
Tufts' five-best finishers totaled a 51 score, ahead of MIT's 61 final. The Engineers are the #1-ranked team in the Region and the #3-ranked squad in the nation. The Jumbos are #2 regionally and #17 nationally. Tufts won the title with a line-up featuring four runners competing in their first NCAA East Region race.
With the victory, Tufts receives an automatic berth into the NCAA National Championship race next Saturday. This is Tufts' second East Region title. MIT had won the last three NCAA East titles (2022-24) since Tufts won its lone Regional crown back in 2021.
Tufts was a close second behind MIT at the two-kilometer and four-kilometer checkpoints today before surging to the victory over the final two kilometers.
The Jumbos placed each of their seven runners in the top 25 individually today, earning each of them an All-Region accolade (top 35). The team was led as usual by senior
Liz Donahue, who finished fifth with a 21:36.8 mark on the six-kilometer course. Sophomore
Zoe Margolies was 11th in the race with a 21:50.7 finish.
A pair of stand-out performances from their two first-years in the race was critical to the Jumbo victory.
Zui Chinchalkar and
Lily Simmonds both had season-best times as Chinchalkar ran 21:52.3 for 12th place and Simmonds crossed in 21:58.9 for 13th place. Simmonds was 23rd in the race at four kilometers and moved up 10 spots by the finish.
Junior
Katya Henisz was the fifth Tufts scorer in 15th-place overall (22:06.6).
The Jumbo seven also included sophomore
Deirdre Flanagan in 19th (22:13.5) and sophomore
Samara McVey, whose 22:24.0 was a PR for 24th place.
MIT senior Kate Sanderson won the race with a 21:20.1 winning time.
--JUMBOS--
