No. 9 Women’s Cross Country Wins NEWMAC Title for the 19th Consecutive Season

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – The No. 9 MIT women's cross country team placed five runners in the top seven to win the 2026 NEWMAC Women's Cross Country Championship with 19 points on Saturday at Smith College. Liv Girand won the individual title to lead MIT to the championships for the 19th year in a row and the 21st time in program history.

Coast Guard was second with 56 points, followed by third place Smith (84), fourth place Wellesley (105) and fifth place Babson (168). Salve Regina (189), WPI (195), Springfield (224) and Wheaton (243) placed sixth through ninth, followed by Mount Holyoke, Clark and Emerson.

Following the race, MIT sophomore Jordan Lacsamana was awarded the NEWMAC Women's Cross Country Laurels of Academic Excellence, presented to the student-athlete with the best finish and highest GPA competing at the NEWMAC Championship. Lacsamana finished as the runner-up and currently has a 4.00 GPA studying Brain and Cognitive Science and Biology.

THE BASICS:

Winning Team Score: 19 points, MIT
Top Finisher: Liv Girand, MIT (22:17.6)
Top MIT Finisher: Girand

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Girand won the 6K individual title in 22:17.6, finishing 12 seconds ahead of teammate Jordan Lacsamana (22:29.3).

Jessica Meza (22:52.5), Megan Diulus (22:59.6) and Heather Jensen (23:11.0) placed fourth, fifth and seventh to complete MIT's scoring, with a 53-second spread from first to fifth.

Sophie Cheung (13th, 23:27.3) and Sofie Howard (15th, 23:32.0) were MIT's sixth and seventh runners.

NEWMAC ALL-CONFERENCE (Top 19 Finishers):

1. Liv Girand (22:18)
2. Jordan Lacsamana (22:30)
4. Jessica Meza (22:53)
5. Megan Diulus (23:00)
7. Heather Jensen (23:11)
13. Sophie Cheung (23:28)
15. Sofie Howard (23:32)
17. Katie Hansen (23:42)
19. Katherine Pagorek (23:53)

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Girand is the 11th MIT runner to be named NEWMAC Athlete of the Year. She is a four-time NEWMAC All-Conference honoree.
MIT earned nine of the 19 All-Conference spots and had 12 runners in the top 24 finishers.
Diulus earned NEWMAC All-Conference honors for the third time.
Meza earned her second NEWMAC All-Conference honor on Saturday.
Lacsamana, Jensen, Cheung, Howard, Hansen and Pagorek each claimed All-Conference honors for the first time.
Lacsamana is MIT's second recipient of the NEWMAC Laurels of Academic Excellence. Gillian Roeder was the inaugural recipient in 2025.

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