Nov. 21, 2005

Patriot League champions and American senior Keira Carlstorm (Oakton, Va./Oakton) earned her third straight all-America honor Monday finishing sixth at the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships held at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind. Colgate senior Michael Hanlon (Ann Arbor, Mich./Ann Arbor Huron) led the way for the Patriot League men finishing 121st.

Carlstrom finished the 6,000-meter course in a time of 19:50.70 Her sixth-place finish is the best ever by a Patriot League student-athlete. This year's finish was also 10 spots better then her finish in 2004 and 11 places better then her 2003 finish. In both previous years she was also named All-America. She is the first athlete in League history to be named NCAA All-America three times in the sport of cross country.

Hanlon was the Patriot League's top male finisher completing the 10,000-meter course in a time of 31:09.40. He was joined in the race by the American University men's team. The Eagles finished 30th of 31 teams competing. American's top finisher was sophomore Brendan Fennell (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) who finished with time of 31:15.01 good enough for 128th. Sophomore Steve Hallinan (Drexel Hill, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) finished 154th, while teammates senior Pat Burford (Bellmore, N.Y./John F. Kennedy) finished 185th, Kevin Tschirhart (Northport, N.Y./Northport) 194th and sophomore Awit Yohannes (Derwood, Md./Magruder) 203rd to round out the team scoring. Junior Connor Lanz (Valley Stream, N.Y./Valley Stream) (225th) and senior Phil Turner (Reedsburg, Wis./Reedsburg Area) (233rd) also competed for American.

Lehigh junior Jennifer Schappert (North East, Md./Rising Sun) also competed in the women's race finishing 123rd in her NCAA Championship debut. She completed the course in 21:19.00.