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Patriot League Champs!
Eagles take three of top-four to win title by one point

Nov. 2, 2002 | Results

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The American University women's cross country team won the Patriot League Championship today at Army. The Eagles edged defending champion Bucknell by only one point. Samia Akbar won the women's race in a course record time of 21:53.72 to earn Patriot League Women's Runner of the Year honors. She broke the old course record by over 90 seconds. Head coach Matt Centrowitz was named Patriot League Women's Coach of the Year and AU earned four All-Patriot First-Team honors.

Akbar broke away from the pack early, taking control of the race and building a lead of over 20 seconds less than two miles into the race. Akbar continued to build her lead and crossed the finish line over 40 seconds ahead of Bucknell's Theresa Dennis. AU's Jen Baclawski and Keira Carlstrom were close behind in third and fourth, running 22:42.99 and 22:44.16 respectively.

The fourth AU runner to cross the line was Whitney McNees who placed ninth in 23:32.93. McNees ran a solid race, running with a large pack through the bulk of the race and running strong without one of her shoes over the final stretch to place ninth. AU's fifth runner was Zaia Wharton in 25th (24:21.93). Wharton moved up through the field during the race and was able to catch a number of runners in the final half of the meet. Also on the AU squad was Leah Heinecke-Krumhus who placed 43rd in 25:22.13.

In an extremely tight team competition, AU won with 42 points and Bucknell was second with 43. Army was third with 55 points. The Eagles' next meet is Nov. 16 at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals held in Davis, W. Va.