Elizabethtown College Women's Cross Country:
2003 Season in Review

The 2003 season was, in many ways, the best thus far in the history of the Elizabethtown College women's cross country program. The team posted its highest NCAA Mideast Regional finish ever, came near its high-water mark at the MAC Championships and had three runners earn first team All-MAC status for the first time in program history, and had its first NCAA Division III Championship meet qualifier and first All-American in the history of the program.

At the MAC Championships at DeSales University November 1, the Blue Jays - with their usual number four and five runners hampered by injuries - placed third overall. Etown's top finisher at the meet, Melissa St. Clair '05, finished third overall to earn first team All-MAC honors and tie the program record for highest MAC Championship individual finish. Also earning spots on the All-MAC first team were Erin Diehl '07, who placed seventh, and Amanda Santore '05, who finished eighth.

At the NCAA Mideast Regional meet, hosted by Dickinson College at Carlisle High School, the Blue Jays sat out their usual number four and five runners and still managed to finish eighth out of 38 teams in the region - Etown's highest regional finish ever. Two Etown runners, St. Clair and Diehl, earned All-Region honors by finishing among the top 35. St. Clair, furthermore, finished seventh overall and became Etown's first runner ever to qualify to compete as an individual at the NCAA Division III Championship meet.

Running at the NCAA Championships at Hanover College, St. Clair finished 34th in the nation to become the first Blue Jay women's cross country runner ever to earn All-America honors.

Over the course of the 2003 season, Etown defeated Messiah, the eventual MAC Champion, at the beginning of the season in the Capital Area Classic when the entire Blue Jay squad was healthy, finished third at the Lebanon Valley College Invitational, and placed sixth at the Dickinson College Long Course-Short Course Invitational.

A remarkable aspect of the Blue Jays' success in 2003 was their relative inexperience: the team had no seniors, five juniors, four sophomores, and six first-years.

At the conclusion of the season, six Etown runners - two-thirds of those on the team who were eligible to receive the award - earned spots on the MAC All-Academic Team by posting cumulative grade point averages of 3.20 or higher while attaining sophomore academic status or greater. They were Jill Brobst '05, Danielle Frye '06, Ashley Klees '05, St. Clair, Santore, and Kim Whalen '06. Also, Whalen tied for the honor of having the highest cumulative GPA of all fall sport athletes at Elizabethtown College, while the team as a whole posted the second-highest team cumulative GPA of all of Elizabethtown's fall sport programs.

Etown also posted the 16th-highest team combined GPA out of all women's cross country squads in NCAA Division III over the fall 2003 semester, and both Santore and St. Clair earned spots on NCAA cross country coaches' all-academic team.

Following the completion of the 2003-04 academic year, St. Clair became the program's first-ever CoSIDA Academic All-American after being named to the Academic All-America College Division Women'[s Cross Country/Track & Field Second Team. She also earned a spot on the Academic All-District II First Team.

Additional Info on the 2003 Women's Cross Country Season:

• Team Roster
• Statistics
• Schedule & Links to Results
• Pictures, Page One
• Pictures, Page Two
• Pictures, Page Three