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Women's Cross Country Season-in-Review
A Bright Future Awaits American Cross Country

Nov. 13, 2001

WASHINGTON -- A young squad prepared for the 2001 cross country season full of enthusiasm. The Eagles capitalized on that excitement and finished in the top five in all but one of their meets. The successes of this season leads to much more optimism for future years.

Two American runners led the team for much of the season running side-by-side. Junior Samia Akbar and sophomore Jen Baclawski both earned All-League honors at the Patriot League meet. Not surprisingly, they finished only four-tenths of a second apart in sixth and seventh places. Newcomer Whitney McNees was the top freshman on the team and finished 22nd at the League meet.

The Eagles finished fifth in the Patriot League meet at Hamilton, N.Y. The meet was incredibly close with American only seven points out of third place. Sophomores Jessica Daniel and Leah Heinecke-Krumhus helped American in the conference meet with finishes of 37th and 48th place.

American finished second in back-to-back meets at the George Mason Fall Classic and the Maryland Invitational. At George Mason, the Eagles fell short by only one point. The top four runners rested for the George Washington Invitational and Heinecke-Krumhus rose to the occasion, leading the Eagles with a 46th place finish in a time of 19:54.00. This was her first time under 20 minutes.

Akbar continued her stellar career at American in 2001. She finished in the top 15 in every race she ran, finishing second the Navy Invitational and third at the Maryland Invitational. At the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Meet, Akbar earned All-Region Honors, placing 14th in 21:25.07.

Baclwaski had an outstanding season as well. She finished in the top ten in every race except one. At Maryland and George Mason, Baclawski was the first collegiate finisher. Her second place finish at Maryland in 18:45.45 earned her ECAC Player of the Week honors for the week of October 17. At the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, Baclawski ran to a 30th place finish.