SAN FRANCISCO — The cross country season will continue for two University of San Francisco women's student-athletes, as both Aoibhe Richardson and Sophie Soefeldt have been selected by their respective home countries to compete in the 2019 European Cross Country Championships on Dec. 8, in Lisbon, Portugal.
 
Thanks in part to her All-American performance Saturday at the NCAA Division I Cross Country National Championship, Richardson was selected to run for Ireland in the main event, the senior women's race. Soefeldt, who already has experience competing for her native Denmark and ran at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in the U20 class last fall, will again compete for Denmark in the U20 race at the European Championships next week.
 
"Aoibhe and Sophie being selected for these teams again demonstrates the tremendous international success of our student-athletes," said University of San Francisco Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. "There have been Dons competing consistently at these international competitions over the last few years, highlighted, of course, by alumnus Lizzie Bird's great performance in the steeplechase at the IAAF World track & field championships last fall."
 
Richardson, new to The Hilltop this year as a grad transfer from the University of Portland, had an outstanding fall for the Dons. She flashed her strength in her debut on Aug. 31, erasing a near-20-second deficit to barely get out-leaned and finish runner-up at the USF Invitational. Four weeks later, she dominated the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota, winning the race by more than 11 seconds. Three weeks after that, she repeated her victorious performance with an even bigger one at the Pre-National Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., besting a field that boasted nine regionally ranked teams by more than 14 seconds.
 
Soefeldt was the Dons' No. 2 runner at the Pre-National Invitational and turned in solid performances all season long during her first year of collegiate cross country. She was the Dons' No. 3 at the West Coast Conference Championships on Nov. 1, where she ran a season-best 21:34.6 for the 6-kilometers. She was also among the Dons' top-three runners when she made her collegiate debut on Sept. 13, at UC Davis' Stump Invitational.
 
The U20 women's race, to be run at 4.2 km, is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Western European Standard Time, or 2:30 a.m. PST on Dec. 8. The 8.2 km senior women's race will take place at 1:20 p.m. local, 5:20 a.m. PST.