EARLYSVILLE, Va. – Longwood cross country ended the final chapter of its 2019 season with an exclamation point. Seven of them, in fact.
 
Highlighted by seven personal-bests, the Lancers bookended their fall schedule with a cliffhanger that saw all four Lancer men and all three women run their fastest individual times of the season. The race capped a season full of PRs for the Lancers, who finished the 2019 fall with six top-10 times in the program record books.
 
Newcomer Grace Puleo added to that list Friday, clocking the fastest 6K time by a Lancer freshman in program history with a personal-best 23:46.9. She trailed only junior Casey Williams within Longwood's team order of finish, following 13 seconds behind her fellow frontrunner who set her fifth PR of the year with a 23:34.9.
 
Williams' run was the seventh-fastest 6K in school history, breaking her own seventh-place time of 23:36.60 that she set earlier this season at the VertCross Invitational. Puleo just missed breaking into the top 10 on that list by one second.
 
Meanwhile the Lancer men's sophomore duo of Nick Howell and Sage Church paced their Longwood contingent with personal-best times of 34:41.6 and 35:26.1, respectively.
 
"Our men and women shined in our last race of the season," said second-year head coach Daniel Wooten. "Nick had a great day, posting personal-bests in the 6K and 8K splits along with his PR in the 10K. The 6K split would have been good enough to put him in the top 10 on our 6K board by itself. I know that was an exciting race for him given he finished last year hurt.
 
"Casey responded in a big way today as well. I know she was disappointed with the Big South race, but that was a distant memory when the gun sounded today. I'm also proud of Grace, as she had a big PR and now has the all-time freshman record for the 6K."
 
Women's sophomore Lindsey Gordon also hit a PR in the 6K at 25:26.0, shaving 10 seconds off her performance at last year's NCAA Regional. On the men's side, freshman Sam Sager clocked a 35:27.3, while his fellow newcomer Shahmique Cromwell finished with a 37:13.0 in his first career 10k.
 
The Longwood men and women will now spend the winter recovering and preparing for their spring offseason track gauntlet, which will set the early stage for a 2020 season in which they will return every runner from this year's squad.
 
"All in all, this has been a tremendous season for both programs, and I know the best is yet to come," Wooten said. 
 
NCAA Southeast Regional
November 15, 2019
Earlysville, Va. (Panorama Farms)
 
Men's 10k Individual Results (249 participants)
204. Nick Howell (34:41.6)
224. Sage Church (35:26.1)
225. Sam Sager (35:27.3)
243. Shahmique Cromwell (37:13.0)
 
Women's 6k Individual Results (261 participants)
199. Casey Williams (23:34.9)
210. Grace Puleo (23:46.9)
250. Lindsey Gordon (25:26.0)
 
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