Greyhound Sports

Dominance.

That one word can describe the Moravian College women’s cross country program over the last eight years and what is expected from the team in 2001.

The Greyhounds have won the last eight Middle Atlantic Conference Championships, captured the last eight MAC Individual titles and made eight consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division III National Championships with two third-place finishes.

Last fall, the Greyhounds were dominant in all facets of their season, placing first in seven of nine invitationals, having seven individual champions in ten competitions and posting a 3-0 dual meet record. Moravian, which placed fifth at the 2000 NCAA Championships—its second highest finish in school history—defeated six NCAA Division I schools and eleven NCAA Division II schools throughout the season.

So far in 2001, the Greyhounds have won five of six invitationals and had finished behind just Penn State University and Bucknell University at the prestigious Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University. Moravian had defeated 28 Division I and 14 Division II schools.

Perhaps the strongest-ever running class in Moravian’s history will be the group of seniors leading the Greyhounds this season. The quartet of runners placed in the top ten of the MAC Championships and the NCAA Mideast Regional last fall.

Heading the group is Heidi Wolfsberger, a two-time cross country All-American after a second-place finish last season, a national champion in track and field, and an eight-time All-American overall. Wolfsberger won her second straight MAC Individual title last fall and three other meets including the Mideast Regional. With her win in the conference meet, Wolfsberger joins the sister duo of Tara and Tracy Wartman as two-time MAC individual champions. Wolfsberger has already won three of six races in the fall of 2001.

Whenever you see Wolfsberger on the course, classmate Emily Shertzer is usually right on her heels. Shertzer also earned All-American status last fall after placing 26th at the NCAA Championships. She won the first three races of the season last year, beating Wolfsberger twice and then she finished runner-up to Wolfsberger twice at the end of the season. Shertzer is a three-time MAC First Team All-Star and also a three-time All-Mideast Region honoree.

Seniors Kim Jaick and Erin Boyle round out the quartet that has the Greyhounds thinking of their first-ever NCAA Division III Team National Championship this fall. Jaick had eight top ten finishes last season with five in the top five. Jaick, a two-time MAC All-Star and All-Region honoree, was runner-up to Shertzer in two races and placed 50th at the national championship meet, just 14 seconds shy of becoming an All-American. Boyle had six top ten finishes last season with five in the top five and she was a MAC All-Star and All-Region runner last fall. Boyle placed 69th in the national championship meet with her second best time of the season.

In addition to the quartet of seniors, Moravian head coach Mark Will-Weber has had ten more runners return from the 2000 squad, including junior Jennifer Wagner and sophomore Ashley Kimmet, who both competed at the national championships last year. Leading a strong list of recruits are freshmen Chelsea Mullins, who will be the Greyhounds number five runner, Heather McGarvie, Alison Stoyko, and Megan Wise.

As of October 20, 2001, the Greyhounds were ranked as the top NCAA Division III team in the country and had held the top spot for five weeks after defeating defending National Champion Middlebury College on its home course on September 15.

This article was previously printed in the September/October issue of MAC Sixteen Magazine, the official magazine of the Middle Atlantic Conference.

Heidi Wolfsberger (447), Emily Shertzer (behind Wolfsberger), Erin Boyle (429), and Kim Jaick (436) all placed in the top 10 of the 2000 MAC Championship and the NCAA Mideast Regional last year.