FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-050-07-08
Monday, November 12, 2007

Elizabethtown Women's Cross Country Team Receives At-Large Bid to NCAA Division III Championships

Erin Fisher breaks away from the pack

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- For the second consecutive year, the Elizabethtown College women's cross country team has received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III championships, to be held Saturday at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

The Blue Jays finished fourth as a team in the Mideast Regional meet at Lehigh University on Saturday, and earned one of 16 at-large berths to join the 16 teams that automatically qualified by finishing first or second in each of the eight regions.

Tiffany Kulp earned All-Region honors

Senior Erin Fisher (McEwensville, PA/Warrior Run) was already assured a spot in the field by capturing the individual championship at the Mideast Regional meet, and she will be joined by six teammates in the field of 280 runners.

Also representing the Blue Jays will be three other All-Mideast Region honorees in junior Tiffany Kulp (Perkasie, PA/Pennridge), first-year student Kristen O'Brien (Westminster, MD/Winters Mill) and sophomore Megan VanDenHengel (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cumberland Valley) along with senior Sarah Grove (Harrisburg, PA/Central Dauphin East), junior Amanda Daws (Thorofare, NJ/West Deptford) and sophomore Sarah Merusi (Montague, NJ/Port Jervis, NY).

Kristen O'Brien placed fourth among first-year runners

Elizabethtown will be competing at the NCAA Division III championships as a team for the third time in the last four years. The Blue Jays placed 19th out of 24 schools in 2004 and finished 31st out of 32 squads in 2006. Fisher was the Blue Jays' top individual finisher last year as she took 67th place, after serving as an alternate on the 2004 team.

Joining Elizabethtown as representatives from the Mideast Region are regional champion Dickinson College, runner-up Haverford College, and fellow at-large selections Johns Hopkins University and Allegheny College.

Megan VanDenHengel was the fourth Blue Jay to take All-Region honors

The complete announcement of the competitors at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships can be found here.

(All photos on this page taken by Tom "Drac" Williams.)

Sarah Grove's strong run enabled the Blue Jays to finish fourth in the region

Amanda Daws and Sarah Merusi run with the pack at regionals