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Akbar Claims Individual Title at Navy Invitational
Eagles place third as Carlstrom and Baclawski also place in top-five

September 14, 2002

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Samia Akbar won the Navy Invitational Saturday as she ran the fourth fastest time ever on Navy's 5,000-meter cross country course. American had a strong pack up front as Keira Carlstrom and Jen Baclawski finished third and fourth respectively to help the Eagles to a third place team finish.

Akbar ran 18:10.08 to easily win the race by over 23 seconds. In her first race as an Eagle, Carlstrom finished just over five seconds behind the second place runner, Katie Purcell of Maryland, running 18:38.66. Baclawski ran 18:42.71 to finish fourth.

Zaia Wharton placed 39th in her first collegiate race, running 20:19.19. Leah Heinecke-Krumhus finished in 77th, crossing the line in 21:14.44. Placinc 91st, Heidi Fishpaw ran 21:38.07.

The individual title was the first in cross country in Akbar's career. Her previous best finish was second place at last year's Navy Invitational.

American returns to action next weekend at the Mount St. Mary's Invitational held in Emmitsburg, Md.

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES

Rank School Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 Naval Academy 50 6 8 9 13 14 20 21
2 Maryland 52 2 7 11 15 17 18 22
3 American 100 1 3 4 34 58 63
4 Furman 129 12 23 26 30 38 42 53
5 George Washington 156 19 25 29 33 50 56 57
6 UMBC 159 5 27 35 44 48 66 67
7 Mount St. Mary's 162 10 24 36 45 47 60
8 Loyola (Md.) 172 16 28 39 40 49 51 61
9 Canisius 255 32 52 54 55 62 65 69
10 George Mason 276 41 43 46 72 74 76
11 Robert Morris 293 31 37 73 75 77 79
12 Cleveland State 332 59 64 68 70 71 78 80