Mary Washington College cross country just keeps getting better and better. During the 1983 season, the MWC Blue Tide teams set new time and win records and only one member, senior Mary Kinnecome (Silver Spring, MD) leaves the team before the 1984 season.
With a top seven lineup of a junior, three sophomores, and three freshmen, the MWC team placed 11th nationally, won the NCAA South/Southeast Region title and the Tidewater Conference meet, both for the first time. The Tide was second in both the Mason-Dixon Conference meet and the Virginia Division II and III State Meet.
Their 9-2 dual meet record and 35-19 total record both represent new highs in win totals. As she has in both her freshman and sophomore seasons, junior Marlene Moreno (Silver Spring, MD) led her MWC squad through their paces. The Cuban born runner won the NCAA South/Southeast regional meet. She set MWC's new 5000 meter home course record of 18:13, and in just missing All-American (top 25) status with a 28th place finish at the NCAA Divsion III National meet, she set a new MWC 5000 meter record of 17:50.
In her first two seasons, Moreno's team leadership was unquestioned but in 1983, sophomore Martha Forsyth (Groveland, MA) and freshman Lisa Petrilli (Baldwin, MD) combined to demonstrate the team's depth and push Moreno to her new personal bests. Moreno placed first for MWC in five of the team's 12 events. In four of those races she was first overall.
Forsyth won twice, setting new three mile records in both races, the last the standing MWC mark of 17:18. Before an injury ended her season in early October, Forsyth, a national meet participant with Moreno as an individual in 1982, won the Essex (MD) Open meet, and defeated every Division I runner she faced in her short season. Petrilli won three meets as a freshman, winning the State Divsion II and III meet and finishing second overall in the Mason-Dixon Conference and NCAA Regional meets.
Moreno, Petrilli, and another top five fixture, freshman Kate Demarest (Arlington, VA) all earned All-Virginia Division II and III and All Mason-Dixon Conference awards. In the Tidewater Conference meet, freshman Bessie Patterson (Orlando, FL) and Pam Shillingsburg (Haymarket, VA)and sophomores Judy Hubbell (Alexandria, VA) and Gayle Schmith (Cockeysville, MD), four national and regional meet competitors, were named All Tidewater Conference. The MWC cross country program is one of Mary Washington's most successful. In the past four years, the team has won their regional competition three times and finished second once. The team has been to the national meet competition in each of the past four seasons. Their 11th place 1983 standing was their highest and Moreno's 28th place was an individual high.