Saturday, March 10, 2007

Sophomore Laura Rolf (Rochester, Mich./Lutheran Northwest) became just the second Crusader track and field athlete to earn All-American honors with a tenth-place finish Saturday in the finals of the mile run at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

Rolf crossed the line Saturday in 4:49.95 for her tenth-place finish, less than a second behind the eighth-place finisher. Duke's Shannon Rowbury earned the victory with a time of 4:42.17.

All-American honors are awarded to the top eight finishers in each event, and in individual events, if one or more of the top eight finishers are of another nationality, eight American-born athletes are selected in addition to any foreign-born All-Americans. Two of the runners who finished ahead of Rolf Saturday were foreign-born, allowing her to receive the honors. Rolf joins Collette Liss as the only Valpo runners to ever be named All-Americans.