W&L Women Picked to Win Fourth Straight Cross Country Crown

W&L Women Picked to Win Fourth Straight Cross Country Crown
Roanoke, Lynchburg, Bridgewater Challenge for Top Spot
August 27, 2007

SALEM, Va. --- Washington & Lee University (81 votes) received all nine first place votes in the annual ODAC Women's Cross Country Preseason Poll. Roanoke College (70) was chosen second by the league's coaches with Lynchburg College and Bridgewater College (58 and 51, respectively) battling for the third position.

Washington & Lee earned the ODAC women's cross country crown a season ago, its third straight triumph. Seven of the top 14 individual times were posted by Generals including the two best marks of the meet. Individual champion Jackie Burns and sophomore Kat Telfeyan, last season's Rookie of the Year, were the first two runners to cross the finish line in times of 24:36.6 and 25:17.2, respectively. Washington & Lee's first team All-ODAC tandem was joined by five of its teammates on the second team including possible returnees in junior Becca Taylor (26:38.7) and sophomores Dorothy Todd (26:55.2), Mary Frances Weatherly (27:07.1) and Lizz Krausnick (27:17.8). Taylor was also selected as the ODAC/Farm Bureau Scholar-Athlete Award recipient.

Roanoke saw a trio of Maroons place in the top seven in last season's conference championships with all three possibly set for a return to the course. Sophomore Mallory McClaine finished third overall in a time of 25:39.9 and was joined by senior Meg Harnett (25:50.8) and sophomore Liz Mumaw (25:52.8) on the All-ODAC first team. Harnett was joined by W&L's Burns and Telfeyan as individual runners in the 2006 NCAA Div. III National Championships hosted in Wilmington, Ohio.

Lynchburg and Bridgewater finished fourth and fifth, respectively, at the ODAC championship meet a season ago. The two schools were chosen to maintain the same order in the standings, but leapfrog a spot into a battle for third place. Former Hornet Ashley Armistead (graduation) was the lone runner to post a top-14 time last year, but each team returns several athletes capable of taking the next step.

The 2007 ODAC season gets underway on Saturday, September 1. This year's ODAC Championships will be hosted by Washington & Lee in Lexington, Virginia. The meet is slated for Saturday, October 27.

Listed below is the entire ODAC Women's Cross Country Preseason Poll. For more information on ODAC cross country, visit www.odaconline.com

2007 ODAC Women's Cross Country Preseason Poll

(#) Denotes first place votes