Wesleyan University

Ellen Davis, a sophomore at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and a resident of Montclair, N.J., claimed All-America honors when she placed eighth in the 5,000-meter race at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomfield, Ill. this weekend. The 5k was held Saturday, March 12 with a field of 13 runners.

Davis had qualified for the event with the third fastest time in the country this season, a 17:12.09 clocking diuring the New England Championships at Boston University Feb. 25. It also represented a Wesleyan team record as she cut more than 20 seconds off the previous team best of 17:33.44 set in 1985. Davis' time at Nationals was 17:35.05 as most of the top runners saw their times fall off at this event. National champion Carter Hamill of Amherst won with a time of 17:02.40 though she had qualified with a nation-best time of 16:34.95 while Caroline Cretti of Williams, who placed second in 17:14.68,. had a qualifying time of 16:59.38.

This was the second trip to an NCAA event for Davis this year as she was part of Wesleyan's women's cross-country team that qualified for the NCAA Division III Meet during the fall and finished 14th of 24 as a team. Davis completed the 6k course in 22:47.6 to finish 54th of 215 runners. She was the team's number-two runner throughout the season behind two-time All-American senior Courtney Quirin.

Davis is the daughter of Rob and Peggy Davis of 12 Garden Street in Montclair and is a 2003 graduate of Montclair High School where she lettered four times in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track while serving as a team captain in all three sports her senior year.

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