WINTHROP, Mass. - A week after collecting the first conference honor of her collegiate career, Norwich University women's cross country freshman Ava Dillon (Erie, Colo.) has made it two in a row, earning Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Rookie of the Week recognition for the second consecutive week, as announced by the league office on Tuesday.

Dillon once again paced the Cadets at Friday afternoon's Hopkinton Cross Country Festival, finishing 14th overall in a 136-runner field with a five-kilometer time of 20:17.0.

The performance marked the fourth consecutive meet in which Dillon has been Norwich's top finisher and came just five days after she placed fourth overall as the highest-finishing freshman at the Colby-Sawyer Maslan Cross Country Invitational & GNAC Preview.

Competing against a deep 14-team field in Hopkinton, Dillon secured another top-15 result while helping Norwich place seventh overall with 192 points.  The Cadets completed the race with a five-runner team time of 1:47:29 and an average of 21:30 among their scoring five.

Her latest honor gives Dillon two GNAC Rookie of the Week selections in as many weeks after receiving the award for the first time on Oct. 5.

Dillon's back-to-back recognition also continues a lengthy run of rookie success for the Norwich women's cross country program.  The Cadets have now produced a runner with multiple GNAC Rookie of the Week honors in six consecutive seasons, with Dillon joining Kaitlyn Moore (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) in 2025, Delaney Whitmarsh (North Yarmouth, Maine) in 2024, Joelle Moore (Swanton, Ohio) in 2023, Elena Vargas in 2022, and India Jones in 2021.

The freshman's performance also came at the front of one of Norwich's tightest pack-running efforts of the season.  Behind Dillon, just 15.9 seconds separated the Cadets' next five finishers, led by freshman Haley Mitchell (APO, Armed Forces Pacific) in 21:39.4.

Whitmarsh followed in 21:47.1, with Moore crossing in 21:51.0, sophomore Ally Teitsch (Malta, N.Y.) finishing in 21:54.2, and freshman Anna Barlow (Kingston, N.H.) immediately behind in 21:55.3.

The result continued a strong stretch for Dillon, who has established herself at the front of the Norwich lineup during her debut season while producing consecutive standout performances across both the five- and six-kilometer distances.

Norwich will close out its regular-season schedule on Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Golden Bear Festival, hosted by Western New England University at Southwood Field in Springfield, Mass.  The women's 5K is scheduled for 10:00 a.m.

The Cadets will then have two weeks to prepare for the GNAC Championships, set for Sunday, Nov. 1, at Colby-Sawyer College's Morris Trail.