Redfield, Mattox Earn All-America Honors at NCAA Cross Country Championships

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director, (503) 370-6110

WAVERLY, IOWA -- Willamette University men's cross country runner Stefan Redfield (Sr., Sisters, OR/Sisters HS) and WU women's cross country runner Kimber Mattox (So., Bend, OR/Bend HS/Cornell Univ.) earned All-America honors at the 2010 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 20. The 8-kilometer men's race and the 6-kilometer women's race were hosted by Wartburg College. The top 35 runners in each race earned All-America recognition.

Redfield finished 17th in the men's race with a time of 24:41.4. Willamette placed 23rd in the men's team standings.

Mattox achieved a 35th place finish in the women's race, as she completed the course in a personal-best time of 21:46.7. Mattox moved into sixth place on the Willamette women's all-time Top 10 list for 6-kilometer races.

Haverford College (Pa.) won the men's team championship with a score of 87. North Central College (Illinois) claimed second place with a score of 104 and St. Lawrence University (N.Y.) placed third with a score of 137. The University of Wisconsin-Platteville was fourth at 198 and Dickinson College (Pa.) was fifth at 204.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was the highest placing West Region team in the men's standings with a 19th place finish. Willamette followed in 23rd and Whitworth University was 28th.

Anders Hulleberg from Haverford won the men's title with a time of 24:22.2. He won by just 1.6 seconds over Ben Sathre from the University of St. Thomas (Minn.), who took second in 24:23.8. Michael Spain of North Central was third at 24:24.6.

Steve Kiplagat of St. Lawrence was the fourth finisher in the men's race. His time was 24:25.2 Mike Heymann of SUNY Plattsburgh (N.Y.) was fifth at 24:28.9.

Redfield, who achieved second place at the West Regional a week ago, was WU's top runner in the men's championship race on Saturday. He was followed by Leo Castillo (Jr., Parkdale, OR/Hood River Valley HS) in 56th place (44th among scorers) with a time of 25:11.6. Ben Donovan (Jr., Minneapolis, MN/South HS) of Willamette was 186th overall and 139th among scorers. Donovan was timed at 25:59.8.

The women's team championship was earned by Middlebury College (Vt.) with a score of 185. Middlebury won by eight points over Washington University (Mo.), which placed second at 193.

In a close battle for third place, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) edged out the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. MIT took third with a score of 214 and UW-Eau Claire was fourth at 218. Williams College (Mass.) finished in fifth place at 230, just 45 points behind the winners from Middlebury.

Wendy Pavlus of St. Lawrence University ran to a first place finish in the women's championship race. She recorded a time of 20:49.3 to win by 11.5 seconds. Jennifer Gossels from Williams was second in 21:00.8 and Jenny Scherer of St. Norbert College (Minn.) was third at 21:08.9. Just one-tenth of a second separated the next two finishers, as Christy Cazzola from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh placed fourth with a time of 21:18.1 and Paige Mills from Keene State College (N.H.) took fifth place in 21:18.2.

Willamette did not compete for the women's team title at the NCAA Championships. Mattox and teammate Theresa Edwards (So., Lake Tapps, WA/Bonney Lake HS) participated after receiving individual bids as a result of their finishes at the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 13. Edwards placed 166th in the women's race at the NCAA Championships with a personal-best time of 22:55.5.