Amongst the elite: For the second straight year the Point Loma women's cross country team had the opportunity to compete at the NCCAA Championships in Cedarville, Ohio. The Sea Lions took 11th place at the meet with Hallie Swenson leading the way in 55th place.

PacWest Championships: PLNU placed sixth at the PacWest Cross Country Championships hosted by Dominican (CA) in San Rafael, Calif. The Sea Lions had all five of its runners finish within 15 places of each other to collect 164 points for the sixth place team finish. That finish was one spot better than the Sea Lions finished in 2012, their first year in the PacWest.

Swendener earns PacWest Runner of the Week: Point Loma sophomore Briana Swendener (Brea, CA/Brea Olinda) was selected as the Pacific West Conference Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of Sept. 16-22. Swendener finished 30th among all runners from four-year institutions at the 2013 Aztec XC Invitational hosted by San Diego State University on Sept. 21 in Balboa Park. She recorded a time of 20:29 on the 5K course to lead the Sea Lions to a fifth-place finish. 

Smart people: Three Sea Lions, Sally Rudi, Haili Matsukawa and Caitlin Brandt, each earned NCCAA All-Academic honors this season. This was the second consecutive season Rudi has been named to the NCCAA All-Academic team and the first for both Matsukawa and Brandt. To be eligible for the honor student-athletes must have a minimum 3.4 cumulative grade point average as a junior or senior. They also must be a letterwinner and complete at least one term at the nominating institution.

Salute to the seniors: The Sea Lions will lose only two members off its 2013 squad as both Sally Rudi and Katlyn Sharron exhausted all four years of their eligibility in cross country. Rudi finished amongst the top 3 runners for PLNU in all six races her senior season.

Talented core returns: Point Loma will bring back 14 letterwinners from its 2013 team. This includes a very talented group sophomores and freshmen which are starting to form the core of future PLNU cross country teams. Six of the seven runners for PLNU at the NCCAA Championships were underclassmen, with Sally Rudi being the only exception. This group includes sophomores Alisa Poplawski, Briana Swendener and Hannah Stevens, along with current juniors Jennifer Beers, Susanna Bradley, Caitlin Brandt, Jessica Lucas and Haili Matsukawa. The freshman class includes Erica Armenta, Marissa Dotter, Jocelyn Duran, Hayley Richardson, Hallie Swenson and Summer Wallen.  

PLNU honors its own: Head coach Jerry Arvin and his staff also named their own team awards at the team banquet. Hallie Swenson was selected as the team's Most Valuable Player and Hayley Richardson earned the Sportsmanship Award. Sally Rudi was honored by the team as both the Most Inspirational and the Most Improved.