2011 Women's Cross Country Runners of the Week

OCT 10-16
Casey Powell (Principia)
Principia College's Casey Powell, a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo., has been named the Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of October 10-16. This marks the fifth time this season that she has earned the honor.

Powell was the lone female runner competing for Principia at the Brooks Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In the "pre-nationals" meet that featured some of the top teams from around the country, Powell ran a time of 23:30 in windy conditions and on a very soft course. She placed 91st out of 395 total runners.

OCT 3-9
Heather Heisse (Webster)
Webster University's Heather Heisse, a sophomore from Silex, Mo. (Buchanan), has been named the Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of October 3-9.

Heisse placed 47th in a field that included four NCAA Division III regionally ranked teams and one nationally ranked team at the Gibson Family Invitational hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She posted a time of 26:16 on the 6K course, finishing more than a minute faster than the closest SLIAC runner at the event. Webster finished ninth out of 12 teams competing.

SEP 26-OCT 2
Casey Powell (Principia)
Principia College's Casey Powell, a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo., has been named the Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of September 26-October 2. This marks the fourth time this season that she has earned the honor, including the third consecutive week.

Powell finished second out of 98 runners at the Warrior Invitational hosted by Wisconsin Lutheran College. She posted a time of 23:44 on a soft, wooded-trail course. Powell entered the last mile of the 6K 28 seconds behind the leader and closed to within two seconds at the line. Principia finished second out of 15 teams competing.

SEP 19-25
Casey Powell (Principia)
Principia College's Casey Powell, a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo., has been named the Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of September 19-25. This marks the third time this season that she has earned the honor.

Powell ran a time of 23:16 on the 6K course to place 26th out of 323 runners competing at the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational hosted by Augustana College (Ill.). She was the top runner from the SLIAC and helped her squad to a 16th place finish out of 27 teams competing.

"Casey [Powell] moved up steadily through the field, running a tactically (nearly) perfect race and had a very strong showing in what is likely a 'pre-regional' warm-up," stated Principia head coach Chuck Wilcoxen.

SEP 12-18
Casey Powell (Principia)
Principia College's Casey Powell, a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo., has been named the Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of September 12-18. This marks the second time this season that she has earned the honor.

Powell ran a time of 18:41 to finish in 32nd place at the Illinois Intercollegiate hosted by Illinois State University. She helped lead Principia to a 14th place finish among NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA and Junior College teams. Powell and Principia were the top finishers from the SLIAC competing at the race.

SEP 6-11
Sarah Koestner (Westminster (Mo.))
Westminster College's Sarah Koestner, a sophomore from Lohman, Mo. (Russellville), has been named the Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of September 6-11.

Koestner placed eighth at the Central Missouri Mule Run, running the 4K course in 15:54. She was the first Division III runner in a field dominated by Division II and NAIA runners. Koestner improved on her time of 16:32 from a year ago at the Mule Run. She finished 49 seconds behind the winner, who was unattached, and was just 35 seconds behind the top collegiate runner from Lincoln University. Westminster placed sixth out of nine teams competing.

SEP 1-5
Casey Powell (Principia)
Principia College's Casey Powell, a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo., has been named the Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of September 1-5.

Powell placed 10th at the Big River Running Early Bird meet hosted by Washington University-St. Louis at Forest Park. She posted a time of 15:21 on the 4K course, and helped the Principia women place 7th overall.