Cross Country Info:
Welcome to the home of the 2004, 2007 & 2008 MAC Champions and #36 team in the nation in 2008!
Middle Atlantic Conference Champions...
The sport of women's cross country at Elizabethtown College began in 1981, but it wasn't until 2004 that they finally stood atop the conference in winning their first-ever Middle-Atlantic Conference title. In 2005 and 2006, the women's team finished Runner-Up in the MAC Championships to Messiah College by five points each year. But in 2007, the women's team placed four runners in the top five at the MAC Championships to securely win their second-ever MAC title.
At the 2008 MAC XC Championships Coach Brian Falk led the women’s team to their second consecutive title. The 2008 conference championships were hosted by ETown on a “true cross country course” at Lancaster County Central Park in Lancaster, PA. The Blue Jays, known for coming on strong when it matters most shocked the nationally-ranked Messiah College Falcons and came out victorious. It was truly an upset with ETown not even ranked in the top 10 of the Mideast Regional polls and Messiah ranked second in the region at the time of the race. With an amazing performance from all five scorers, and specifically a marked improvement by senior Amanda Daws ‘09, the Blue Jays placed four runners in front of Messiah’s #2. The point total came out to 43-49 and it was enough to keep the MAC title at ETown for a second straight year.
Over 16 years, the women's cross country
program had produced only three All-MAC runners. But since 1998, when Coach Dager
and Coach Straub took over, ETown has produced 19 All-MAC runners! In
November, 2007, Erin Fisher ’08 won the MAC title for the second year-in-a-row
and remains the only woman in Elizabethtown College history to win the
conference title. On that day, she joined the elite enclave of three
ETown harriers to win the individual conference championship. Dave Berdan ’04 and Dustin Scott ’03 won
their titles in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
In the Hunt at the Mideast Regional Championships…
Advancement to the national championships requires a top five team finish (out of 44 teams) at the Mideast Regional Championships, which occurs two weeks after the MAC Championships. Impressively, the ETown women have finished in the top four at regionals every year since 2004! Ranked sixth heading into the 2008 Mideast Regional Championships, the Blue Jays again showed their ability to peak when it counts and finished fourth. Yet, only three teams from the Mideast Region were selected for the 2008 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships and the Blue Jays finished out the season ranked #36 in the nation. However, senior Tiffany Kulp ‘09 (pictured left) did qualify individually for the national championships by virtue of her sixth-place finish out of 305 runners. The 2008 NCAA Championships were held at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. There, Kulp concluded a brilliant career as she became the only female harrier in ETown history to compete at the national cross country championships all four years.
Perennial NCAA Division III Championship Appearances…
The women of ECXC have advanced to the national championships three of the past five years. ETown’s highest-ever finish at the NCAA Division III Championships was 19th in 2004 with other team finishes of 31st (2006) and 23rd (2007).
Either an individual woman or the
women’s team has represented ETown at every NCAA Division III Cross Country
Championship since 2003. It was at the
2003 NCAA Championships, held at Hanover College, that Melissa St. Clair ’05
finished 34th and became ETown’s first-ever All-American in the
sport of women’s cross country. Then in
2007, senior Erin Fisher ‘08, followed up her victory at the Mideast Regional
Championships with a 15th place finish at NCAAs. With Fisher’s All-American performance at St.
Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, she joined St. Clair as ETown’s
second-ever All-American in women’s cross
country.
Like the men’s team, the women’s cross country team also has a reputation for regularly having one of the top team GPAs in the country. The highest-ever ranking came in 2005 when the women’s cross country team had the fifth-highest cumulative GPA amongst NCAA Division III women’s cross country teams.
Training Philosophy & Venues…
Coach Brian Falk is in second year at ETown having served as Coach Straub’s assistant from 2007-08. In June, 2008 Coach Falk was named the Head Women’s Cross Country Coach at Elizabethtown College. He continues to work with the men’s and women’s middle-distance runners during the winter and spring. As is the case with the men, training for distance and middle-distance runners is individualized with an emphasis on gradual and progressive aerobic development. The team takes full advantage of the beautiful natural environment in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The distance runners often run on the backcountry roads that traverse the woodlands and farms that surround The College. They also frequently train on the many soft surfaces within a 20 minute drive of campus including the crushed limestone of the 20-mile long Conewago Rail-Trail and the 900m loop in Maytown's Fuhrman Park, the 30 miles of dirt trails around idyllic Mt. Gretna and alongside the Susquehanna River, and the rolling grass pathways of Nissley Vineyards and the Elizabethtown Fairgrounds.
Contact Coach Falk at falkb@etown.edu
Elizabethtown College WomensCrossCountry News
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