VANCOUVER, WASH. (Nov. 17, 2012) – Three members of the Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) women's cross-country team participated in the 2012 NAIA Women's Cross-Country National Championship last Saturday at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

British Columbia became the 16th program in NAIA history to win a National Championship and College of Idaho's Hillary Holt became the first Coyote's first national titlist.

OLLU junior Laura Echeverria clocked a 21:44 , while freshmen Erica Ramos finished six seconds later at 21:50 and Marianna Hurtado ended at 22:13 among 309 runners in the 5K. All three members made their first trip to nationals.

"First of all, I mentioned before we left for the NAIA meet that I expected Laura, Erica and Mari to represent themselves and OLLU in a way that we could all be proud of and that is in fact what they did. I cannot say that all of them got a result that we hoped for, but I can say it was not an issue of desire or effort on their part. That said, I think Laura got a result that I would qualify as a breakout. All year she has exceeded expectations and on a tough course in less than perfect weather she ended her season with an exclamation point."