On Saturday, November 17, Pioneer runner Amanda Phillips (senior, Phoenix, Ore.) capped her outstanding 2007 cross country season with a 19th place finish at the NCAA III Cross Country Championships in Northfield, Minn., becoming Lewis & Clark's first female Cross Country All-American. The Pioneers’ sent two runners to the National Championships, Phillips and Tamma Carleton (junior, Elk, Calif.). Carleton, making her third trip to the National Championships in three seasons as a Pioneer, placed 79th.

With a race-time temp of 34 degrees and snow flurries in the air just prior to the starting gun, Amanda Phillips (senior, Phoenix, Ore.) finished the 6k race with a time of 21:51, just edging out a runner from St. Thomas and another from Tufts to secure a 19th-place finish and All-American honors. Phillips placed 96th last season at her first trip to the National Championships. Her 19th place finish is the best-ever finish by a female Pioneer cross country athlete at the National Championships and the best finish by a Pioneer cross country athlete of either gender since Chris Miller’s 9th place finish at the 1965 NAIA National Championships in Omaha, Nebraska. Phillips has the best-ever finish for a Pioneer at the NCAA III Cross Country Championships. She is the first female Cross Country All-American (either NAIA or NCAA III) at Lewis & Clark.

Phillips was the third finisher from the West Region. Willamette’s Sarah Zerzan repeated as National Champion, finishing with a time of 20:54, 23 seconds ahead of second-place. Willamette’s Maddie Coffman finished 11th with a time of 21:43. Carleton, with a time of 22:47, was sixth among Northwest Conference finishers. Carleton and Phillips competed in a field of 280 runners.

Carleton and Phillips qualified for the National Championships the week prior to Nationals at the West Regional, hosted by Lewis & Clark, at McIver State Park in Estacada. Phillips finished fourth and Carleton eighth at the Regionals. For the Pioneer men, David Berman (junior, Scottsdale, Ariz.) finished 33rd to earn All-West Region honors alongside Phillips and Carleton. As a team, the Pioneer women finished in fifth place, holding off Occidental by two points. The Pioneer men finished tenth.

Phillips and Carleton were also both named to the All-Northwest Conference First Team for their respecitve third and seventh place finishes at the race, helping to lead the team to a third-place finish, finishing ten points ahead of the Whitman Missionaries. Kelsey Croall (freshman, Newcastle, Calif.) was 27th with a 23:15.31. Kitty Smith (junior, Malibu, Calif.) was 39th with a time of 23:33.95. Rounding out the scoring for the team was Hannah Hultine (senior, Tualtin, Ore.) running her best race of the year with a 24:34.5.

Click here to find individual race recaps and other news from the 2007 season.