Monday, November 08, 2010 by AMU Athletics Staff

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Lauren Dunleavy had a 16th place finish with her time of 20:01.

Freshman runner, Marya Haegler, qualifies for NAIA National Meet.

Marya Haegler has had an outstanding freshman year for the first year AMU Cross Country Program. She added to her list of honors this past weekend when she finished 2nd in the Sun Conference Cross Country Championships, was named Sun Conference Newcomer of the Year along with earning All-Sun Conference First Team and qualified for the NAIA National Championships that will be held at Fort Vancouver, Washington on November 20th.

Haegler covered the 5000m course held at Hardeeville Central High School and Sargent Jasper State Park outside of Beaufort, SC in a time of 18:11. The winner of the event was two-time defending champion Juline Brice of Webber International (18:07).

The AMU women placed 5th as a team out of the 10 participating schools with a total of 130 points. Embry Riddle won the event with a total of 29 points.

Lauren Dunleavy (16th place in 20:01), Alexis Percy (28th place in 21:22), Maria Miller (38th place in 22:18), Mary Jean Lanzilotti (56th place in 25:16) and Elise Harms (57th place in 25:26) made up the scoring members of the program in the field of 68 runners.

Coach Mike De Witt summed up the efforts of the AMU women: "Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better meet from our first year team. All 6 of the women recorded their best times of the year, which in cross country isn't the most important thing, but the 6 runners averaged a 48 second per runner improvement on their best along with their best percentages of finish places by over 10%."

"The women have an excellent team energy and despite the wide range of experience and ability work hard to contribute in workouts and races. Marya Haegler did a great job of running strong and competing against a veteran All American in Brice from Webber as well as a strong and experienced Embry Riddle group. She will be looking to gain the next step of experience in her career with the upcoming NAIA National Meet."