Kennesaw State Owls - Digital Media Guide: Women's Cross Country

First Year of Competition: 1992
Head Coach: Andy Eggerth
A-Sun All-Conference Honorees: 13
A-Sun Player of the Week Awards: 14
A-Sun All-Academic Honors: 60
Atlantic Sun Conference champions: 2005
A-Sun Individual Title: Mackenzie Howe, 2010
A-Sun Freshman of the Year Awards: 1
A-Sun All-Freshman Honorees: 3

After a another rebuilding season in 2011, the Kennesaw State Owls women’s cross country team is back and looking to make noise in the Atlantic Sun Conference, and take another step towards winning their first league title since 2005. With a squad that is full of talented underclassmen, the Owls are prepped for great runs for a long time to come.

Returning for the Owls are juniors Heather Mor¬ris and Haley Carson. Morris shot out of the gate in 2010 and emerged as a top runner for the Owls, as she earned Freshman of the Year honors for her success by the cross country coaches and an opportunity to race in the NCAA South Regional. She is primed for a breakout fall in 2012 after missing a chunk of last season.

Stepping up in Morris’ place were freshman Vicky Winslow and rising junior Jessica Postle¬waite, who came to KSU from Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C. after an impressive freshman year for them. While there she broke all the cross country school records and was named Runner of the Year at Converse, and it showed during her first year the Black and Gold. Postlewaite was the second leading runner for the Owls at the A-Sun Championship behind Winslow’s 29th place finish in her inaugural league championship run.

Success is a tradition when it comes to Owls Cross Country, starting back in the mid-1990’s when legendary coach Stan Sims led the Black and Gold to nine women’s cross country championships in the Peach Belt Conference, as well as three National Top-10 finishes at the NCAA Division II level. That success immediately continued at the highest level of competition, as the Owls captured the athletic department’s first Atlantic Sun Conference title in 2005, and have finished third or better in the A-Sun five of seven times. Mackenzie Howe made national headlines in 2009 when she won five A-Sun Runner of the Week awards, including four in a row, and would get only better in 2010, winning the A-Sun individual title and earning a spot in the NCAA Cross Country Championship.

Under the new leadership of Andy Eggerth and distance specialist Ryan Wagner, Owls cross country has a bright future, one the team intends to run towards head-first.