MEDFORD, MA (November 10, 2026) – The Tufts University women's cross country team will defend its NCAA East Regional title and race for a 2026 NCAA Division III Championship berth on Saturday at the Wainwright Recreation Complex in South Portland, Maine. Start time is 11:00 AM.
2026 NCAA East Region Women's Cross Country Championship
Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: Wainwright Recreation Complex - (125 Gary L. Maietta Parkway, South Portland, ME 04106 /
Course Map)
Live Coverage:
LIVE RESULTS
The Jumbos won their second Regional championship last year, and many of the Tufts competitors who led the team to that accomplishment are back to compete at the race again this week.
Seniors
Deirdre Flanagan and
Katya Henisz, juniors
Zoe Margolies and
Samara McVey and sophomores
Zui Chinchalkar and
Lily Simmonds all finished in the top 25 last year to receive All-Region awards. All of them are back for this year's race, with McVey traveling as an alternate. First-years
Addison Julian and
Claire Palmer are new starters for the Jumbos on Saturday, while first-years
Kajol Karra and
Esme Gulbransen are the other alternates.
In the USTFCCCA Regional rankings for the East, Tufts is the #1 team followed by MIT, Bates, Colby and Bowdoin in the top five.
"We want to defend the title and think we're in a strong position to do it," said Director of Track & Field / Cross Country at Tufts
Jamie Norton. "We've been competitive with the other teams in the Region all year, finishing ahead of most of them throughout the whole year, but we don't want to take anything for granted. We want to go out there and put out a really strong performance to defend that position."
The winning team at the NCAA East Regional will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Championship, which will be held on November 21 in Northfield, Minnesota. Other high-finishing teams will be considered for at-large berths into Nationals, with their season-long results also factoring into the decision which will be announced on Sunday (Nov. 15).
Tufts has been ranked in the USTFCCCA national top 10 all season and currently sits at #7. The Jumbos were third at the NESCAC race two weeks ago, and had a strong third-place finish at the competitive Connecticut College Invitational on Oct. 17. On Oct. 3 at the Running of the Cows meet at the site of the national championship on the campus of Carleton College, where many nationally-ranked teams were in action, Tufts also had an excellent fourth-place finish.
The highest-finishing individuals from non-qualifying teams at the NCAA East Region Championship can also receive NCAA national berths.
The Jumbo program has a strong history of high individual finishes at the Regional. Liz Donohue was the individual runner-up at the 2024 race and placed fifth last year. Danielle Page was the runner-up in 2019 and 2021, while Anna Slager was also third when that 2021 team won Tufts' first Regional title. Brittany Bowman won the Regional race in 2016, joining Nancy Benson from 1987 as the only Jumbos to win an individual Regional championship.
The course is new for the Jumbos at the race hosted by Bates College. Coach Norton said it's flat and mostly nondescript, though weather could provide a challenge. The forecast as of Tuesday calls for temperatures in the 40s, a chance for rain and wind at 12 mph.
"It's a different feeling coming into a meet with that target on your back a little bit," Coach Norton said, "but I think they're very excited to go try to show that we're still the strongest team."
--JUMBOS--
