Building a dynasty in college athletics is much more difficult now than it was in the past. But the Johns Hopkins women's cross country team's recent dominance on the national level has proven it can be done.
Johns Hopkins, the defending NCAA champion and the nation's top-ranked team since the dawn of the 2017 season, will be seeking its second straight national title and fifth in the last six seasons when it travels to the NCAA Division III championship meet at Principia College in Elsah, Ill., Nov. 18. The Blue Jays won their first NCAA title in 2012 and repeated in 2013 and 2014. Following a fourth-place finish at the 2015 national meet, they captured the title again last fall.
Johns Hopkins earned an automatic bid to the 2017 national championships by winning its 10th consecutive NCAA Mideast Regional title Nov. 11, outdistancing second-place Elizabethtown by 68 points. The Blue Jays dominated the 49-team field, with four runners finishing in the top 10. Junior Ellie Clawson was the Mideast Regional's individual champion with a time of 21:33.5. Freshman Therese Olshanski finished fourth at the NCAA regional meet with a time of 21:56, just six-tenths of a second ahead of Blue Jay senior Caroline Smith.
