The sport of women's cross country at Elizabethtown College began in 1981, but it wasn't until 2004 that they finally stood atop the conference in winning their first-ever Middle-Atlantic Conference title.  Coach Mike Dager is primarily responsible for taking the women's cross country program to a national-caliber level.  In 2005 and 2006, the women's team finished Runner-Up in the MAC Championships to Messiah College by five points each year.  But in 2007, under the direction of Coach Christopher Straub, the women's team placed four runners in the top five at the MAC Championships to securely win their second-ever MAC title. 

Two weeks later at the Mideast Regional Championships the women of ECXC have gone on to peak at the right time.  In 2003, Melissa St. Clair '05 (right) became the first-ever women's cross country runner to achieve All-American honors when she finished 34th at the NCAA Division III Championships held at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.  St. Clair would go on to become the most decorated women's distance runner in school history as she elevated herself from an unknown 12-minute 2 miler and #7 runner on her Chambersburg High School cross country team to become a three-sport All-American running personal bests of 17:14.49 in the 5000m and 35:46.62 in the 10,000m.  The women's team has advanced to the NCAA Division III Championships three out of the last four years with 2004, St. Clair's senior season, being their first-ever team appearance at nationals.  In recent years, Elizabethtown College's women's cross country team has finished 19th (2004), 31st (2006), and 23rd (2007) in the nation

At the 2007 Mideast Regional Championships, the Blue Jays were led by their second-ever Mideast Regional Champion (Dustin Scott won the 2002 Mideast Regional Championship for the men's team) in senior Erin Fisher '08.  Junior Tiffany Kulp '09, freshman Kristen O'Brien '11, and sophomore Megan VanDenHengel '10 all earned All-Region honors by virtue of their top 35 finish out of 270 runners.  But it was senior Sarah Grove '08 who was "The Hero" in finishing 67th overall, the fifth runner across the line for Etown, and closed out the scoring.

According to Coach Straub, "On paper and based on head-to-head regular season competition, Sarah Grove was expected to finish around 135th at regionals, but she and I had other plans.  Both of us believed she was capable of a top 70 finish [at regionals] and she went out and executed our race strategy to perfection.  Throughout the regional race, she and all her teammates, including Mideast Regional Champion, Erin Fisher (left), just fed off the fact that our #5 was getting the job done for the team.  We had an almost indescribable amount of teamwork and positive energy with the women's team this year and how we ran at conference, regionals, and nationals seemed to surprise everyone but ourselves.  There was never a doubt in my mind, or in the minds of our top seven, that we were building mentally and physically toward those performances as the regular season was unfolding".  {NOTE:  Elizabethtown College was ranked 8th in the Mideast Regional Poll and finished 4th. In the national polls, the women's team was unranked all year and went on to beat Mideast Region teams Haverford, Johns Hopkins, and Allegheny at nationals to become the 2nd best team from the region.  Elizabethtown College finished tied for 23rd with the University of Puget Sound (Washington) at the NCAA Division III Championships}. 

Over 16 years, the women's cross country program had produced only three All-MAC runners. But since 1998, when Coach Dager and Coach Straub took over, ETown has produced 18 All-MAC runners!  In 2007, Erin Fisher won the MAC title for the second year-in-a-row and remains the only woman in Elizabethtown College history to win the conference title.  She is also the only woman in school history to win the Mideast Regional title.  In November, at the NCAA Division III Championships held at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, Fisher joined Melissa St. Clair to become the second-ever All-American in women's cross country history by virtue of her 15th place finish

Coach Christopher Straub serves at the Director of Cross Country and Track & Field at Elizabethtown College and is in his tenth year at ETown.  He and first-year assistant coach, Brian Falk, are working closely together to continue what was started by Coach Dager when he took over the women's cross country and distance program in 2002.  It didn't take Dager long to turn the women's cross country program into what has annually become a nationally-competitive NCAA Division III program.  Coach Dager left Elizabethtown College in August, 2007 to take the full-time position of Head Men's and Women's Track & Field Coach at Gwynedd-Mercy College, thus turning the reigns over to Coach Straub prior to the start of the 2007 cross country season

Training for distance and middle-distance runners is individualized with an emphasis on gradual and progressive aerobic development.  The team takes full advantage of the beautiful natural environment in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  The distance runners often run on the backcountry roads that traverse the woodlands and farms that surround The College.  They also frequently train on the many soft surfaces within a 20 minute drive of campus including the crushed limestone of the 20-mile long Conewago Rail-Trail and the 900m loop in Maytown's Fuhrman Park, the 30 miles of dirt trails around Mt. Gretna and alongside the Susquehanna River, and the rolling grass pathways of Nissley Vineyards and the Elizabethtown Fairgrounds

Pictured: The Blue Jays competed at the NCAA Division III Cross Country championships at St. Olaf College. Photo by Tom "Drac" Williams.