BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- For an impressive fifth time this season, Bridgewater State University sophomore Naomi Cass has been selected as the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week.

Cass earned All-East Region honors to lead the BSU women’s cross country team at the 2023 NCAA Division III East Region Cross Country Championships held this past weekend at Hopkinton State Fair Grounds in Contoocook, New Hampshire. The Westport, Massachusetts product covered the six-kilometer course in a time of 22:23.42 to place tenth out of a field of 231 runners at the meet as she also qualified for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.

Cass is the Bears' first women's cross country student-athlete to qualify for the NCAA championships since BSU Hall of Famer Molly Rouillard in 2012 and just the third this century (Nicole Mauro, 2007).

Dickinson College is hosting the national championship meet on Saturday (Nov. 18) at Big Spring High School in Newville, Pennsylvania. The women’s race is slated to get underway at noon.

Cass also earned MASCAC Runner of the Week honors on September 19th, October 3rd, October 17th and October 31st for her performances, respectively, at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, the Keene State Invitational, the Suffolk Invitational and the MASCAC Championships.