Liberty League Website

TROY, N.Y. - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athlete Grace Tilton has been named the Liberty League Women's Cross Country Runner of the Year, the conference has announced. The Concord, N.H., native recently completed her senior season for the Engineers at the NCAA Championship Meet.

Tilton, a captain, earned automatic qualification to Nationals by winning the NCAA Atlantic Regional when she broke her own Leetchworth Park course record with a time of 21:07.0. She bested the 269-runner field to win the individual championship, breaking the 6-kilometer course record time she originally set on October 5 by over 40 seconds. At the NCAA Championship, which was held in Indiana, Tilton ran the 6K event in 22:20, which was an even 6:00 minute mile pace, to finish 63rd out of the 280 competitors. She ran the opening 2K in 7:04, hit the 3K mark at 10:40 and the 2.9 mile point at 17:08.

In addition to capturing the NCAA Atlantic Regional, the Concord High School graduate won the Liberty League Championship, which featured eight schools. She ran the 6K event in 21:23, which was four seconds ahead of the runner-up. She had a 5:44 minutes per mile pace which helped the Engineers finish with 57 points.

Tilton also won the Geneseo Cross Country Invitational, outdistancing that field of 255 by a 29-second margin with a time of 21:48.8 over the six-kilometer course, running the course in a 5:52 pace. She also won the 4k Hamilton College Short Course Invite in 14:35.1, which the Engineers won.

She was a four-time Liberty League Performer of the Week, a USTFCCCA All-Region choice and the USTFCCCA Women's Atlantic Regional Athlete of the Year.

In 2012, Tilton was second at both the Hamilton Invitational and the Liberty League Championships, earning All-Region Honors. She also finished a school-best 13th at the 2012 NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships in a time of 22:25.2. She was also eighth at both the New York State Meet (23:25.69) and the Saratoga Invitational (18:08.38).