Having won six straight conference championships, the Georgetown University Hoyas are regarded as the top college women’s cross-country team in the D.C. area, as well as one of the best in the country.
The Hoyas are projected to be ranked nationally among the top 25 in an upcoming Division I preseason NCAA poll.
So, the big question for the Hoyas entering the 2026 fall campaign is, can they extend their Big East Conference championship run to seven years in a row and win their 12th crown in program history?
With a number of top runners from last season returning this fall, plus some talented additions, Georgetown certainly has the potential.
The season is scheduled to begin for the Hoyas on Saturday morning, Sept. 5 at the Spider Alumni Open hosted by Richmond University. Georgetown also has two other big meets in September at the Cantello Invitational in Annapolis on Sept. 12, then the Princeton Meadow Challenge in Princeton, N.J., on Sept. 26.
This fall’s Big East championship meet is Friday, Oct. 30 in Mechanicsville, Va.
Last season, the Hoyas dominated that competition in winning their sixth straight conference crown, with five runners placing in the top 10 for a low team point total of just 24 points. Villanova was second with 42 points.
Five additional Georgetown runners finished among the top 52.
Georgetown will have to replace three runners who finished in the top 10 last year, including champion Melissa Riggins.
Returning runners include senior Barrett Justema, who finished third in last season’s Big East meet. Another returner, junior Charlotte Bell, finished ninth in the 2025 Big East event.
Five other Georgetown returners who placed in last season’s Big East race are senior Caroline Commings (20th), sophomores Emma Bennett (27th) and Lillie Bogdan (38th), senior Alli Crytser (48th) and junior Victoria Ketzler (52nd).
Those runners also helped the Hoyas finish a close second last fall in the NCAA Division I women’s Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, then 14th in the national championships.
Georgetown also has earned multiple region championships, as well as multiple region runner-up finishes during its recent run of success. The Hoyas have run as a team in the NCAA championship for a number of consecutive seasons.
Some talented newcomers for the Hoyas team this fall include freshmen Margaret Andrzejewski, Lauren Banovac, Aurora Bertelsen Del Solar, Caroline Couch and Esme Campbell; transfer graduate students Nora Wollen, Riley Stewart, Audrey Suarez and Meryl Sullivan; and other transfers Emma Zawatski and Olivia Williams.
Banovac won a 2025 high-school state cross country championship in Tennessee.
NOTES: The six straight conference championships won by the Georgetown women has been achieved only one other time in the history of Big East women’s cross-country, by Villanova from 1989 to 1994 … Three of Georgetown’s top runners last season were graduate students Riggins, Charlotte Tomkinson and Almi Nerurkar, all who have concluded their collegiate athletic careers. Each has transitioned to post-collegiate competition, with Riggins signing a professional contract with Atlanta Track Club Elite. Tomkinson and Nerurkar have continued to race selectively, highlighted by Tomkinson competing at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in New York last month.
