Feb. 27, 2008

NEW ORLEANS - For the second-straight year, the Navy women's cross country team has been recognized as a U.S. Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team for their athletic and academic efforts, it was announced on Tuesday.

The Midshipmen combined for a 3.28 cumulative grade-point average to earn the award with 157 other Division I women's cross country squads in the nation. The Mids were joined on the impressive list by fellow Patriot League institutions Lafayette and Lehigh.

Navy advanced to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championship at Lehigh's Goodman Campus Course this past fall, placing 10th out of 28 scoring teams. The Midshipmen have finished among the region's top-10 teams in two of the past-three years and in each of the three visits to Lehigh's home course for the NCAA regional championship.

In order to be eligible for USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors, the cross country team needed to post a team score at its respective NCAA regional and have a minimum 3.00 team cumulative grade-point average.

A total of nine Navy women's cross country runners were named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll last month. Five of those nine runners, team captain Kyleigh Millhouse (Sr./Boiling Springs, Pa.), Arwyn Becker (Sr./Vail, Colo.), Vicki Moore (Sr./Burke, Va.), Jenny Rubin (So./Papillion, Neb.) and Erica Ziel (So./Saginaw, Mich.) produced a perfect 4.0 grade-point average last fall, tops among all schools in the Patriot League.

The Midshipmen finished the 2007 season with a perfect 4-0 dual-meet record, defeated Army in West Point to claim the N-Star and tied for the Patriot League Championship title with Bucknell.