Johnson Becomes Women’s Cross Country’s Second NCAA All-American

Nov 17, 2012

Northland Sports Online

St. Scholastica’s Chelsea Johnson (North Branch, Minn./Chisago Lakes HS) had the highest finish of any CSS women’s cross country runner before her at a NCAA Championship race, placing 15th on Saturday at the 2012 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships with a program record time of 21:30.3.

Johns Hopkins won the national championship as a team with 158 points, while Christy Cazzola of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh took lead in the final kilometer to win individually with a time of 20:53.3.

Johnson was 15th at the halfway point with a time of 10:31. Johnson would maintain that position and finish with a personal-best time of 21:30.3. She missed 13th by a tenth of a second.

She also finished ahead of Central Region champion and conference foe, Linda Keller of the University of Minnesota Morris, who was 18th overall with a time of 21:32.6. Keller had defeated Johnson at the region meet, UMAC Championship meet and Roy Griak Invitational this season.

The only other NCAA Division III All-American in program history belongs to CSS Hall of Famer Susan Immer, who was 24th in the 1990 championship meet with a 5k time of 18:26. Katelyn Meger was the last CSS runner to compete at nationals finishing 43rd both in 2008 and 2009.

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