FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-73-02-03
Friday, February 28, 2003

Elizabethtown College Men's Cross Country Team Named Best in Nation Academically; Steve Sanko, Dustin Scott, Greg Wetzel, Melissa St. Clair Earn National Academic Awards

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- The Elizabethtown College men's cross country team has achieved that much-sought mix of academic and athletic excellence for many years. Now, however, the team, which finished 15th in the nation and won its first regional and fourth consecutive conference championship last fall, has achieved a truly rare feat. With a team cumulative grade point average of 3.54, Etown possesses the highest GPA of any NCAA Division III men's cross country program in the entire nation, as determined by the NCAA cross country coaches.

Also, four Etown cross country runners, three men and one woman, have earned the NCAA Division III cross country coaches' All-Academic Award by attaining a 3.50 cumulative GPA and finishing in the top 25% of the field at their regional championship.

The four All-Academic Award winners include senior Dustin Scott (Honey Brook, PA/Twin Valley), sophomores Steve Sanko (Hazleton, PA/Bishop Hafey) and Melissa St. Clair (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg), and freshman Greg Wetzel (Warrington, PA/Central Bucks East).

Scott, who is majoring in psychology with a minor in business administration at Elizabethtown, won the Middle Atlantic Conference individual championship and the Mideast Regional individual championship in cross country in 2002. He was also named the 2002 Mideast Regional Runner of the Year and MAC Runner of the Year. In 2001, he finished as the Middle Atlantic Conference individual runner-up and became Elizabethtown's first All-American in cross country with a 14th-place finish out of 211 runners at the NCAA Division III national championship meet. Scott earned All-MAC honors every year of his career and All-Mideast Region honors three times in cross country. He has also thus far totaled eight conference medals and four conference gold medals in track & field, and he has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III outdoor track & field championships twice.

Sanko, who is majoring in computer engineering at Elizabethtown College, has twice earned first team All-MAC honors and all Mideast Region honors in cross country. He also totaled three medals and one gold medal at the MAC indoor and outdoor track & field championships last year, and he has provisionally qualified to compete in the 5000m at the NCAA Division III indoor track & field championships this year.

St. Clair is majoring in communications at Elizabethtown College. She finished 24th, just four places shy of earning All-MAC honors, at the 2002 MAC cross country championships, and she placed 57th out of 241 runners at the 2002 Mideast Regional cross country championships.

Wetzel is majoring in mathematics secondary education at Elizabethtown College. He earned first team All-MAC honors and was named the conference's Rookie of the Year in men's cross country in 2002.

A total of 88 men and 131 women nationwide in Division III won the NCAA cross country coaches' All-Academic Award.