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Abi Gerstle becomes first Wittenberg runner to win NCAC Cross Country Championship

All season, junior co-captain Abi Gerstle (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont) has paced the Wittenberg University women's cross country team to strong finish after strong finish. On Saturday, Oct. 27 at the NCAC Cross Country Championship Meet at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., Gerstle was at her best, becoming the first Tiger runner to win an individual conference title and earning Runner of the Year honors in the process.

Gerstle crossed the finish line in 19:09.45, more than seven seconds faster than anyone else in the field. That followed a third-place finish in 2000, an All-NCAC first-team performance that propelled Gerstle on to an eighth-place run at the Great Lakes Regional Championship and the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship. Gerstle, who was named MVP of the cross country team, women's indoor track team and women's outdoor track team in 2000-01, finished 122nd at the national meet in Spokane, Wash. last November. It was her first trip to the NCAA meet, and it was the first time that a Wittenberg runner had advanced that far.

Gerstle followed that strong effort up with an outstanding track season. For the second straight year, she advanced to the NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Track Championship meet, this time in the 1,500 run. She was All-NCAC in the 1500 in both the indoor and outdoor track seasons. Gerstle also holds several school records in both cross country and track.

Gerstle's first-place finish led the Tigers to fifth place in the NCAC meet overall. Her outstanding finish was backed by the efforts of senior co-captain Sarah Weide (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead), who was a career-best seventh in a time of 19:41. That finish was good for first-team All-NCAC honors, the first time Weide has earned such an award in cross country after taking home second-team honors the last two years.

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