FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Saturday, November 17, 2001)

COURTNEY QUIRIN TAKES ALL-AMERICAN HONORS IN CROSS COUNTRY

Courtney Quirin, a freshman at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and a resident of Villanova, Pa., earned All-American honors by placing 28th of 213 runners at the NCAA Division III Women's Cross-Country Championship held at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., today. The top 35 finishers at the event are deemed All-America.

Quirin, who paced Wesleyan to the finish line in each of the Cardinals' seven varsity cross-country events during the 2001 season, covered the 5,000-meter course at Nationals in a time of 17:50. She was one of six first-year runners to earn All-American laurels, and is the first All-American in the event for Wesleyan since Sarak Brodsky placed 34th at the 1996 Championship. Quirin's finish is the best by a Wesleyan woman runner since Sarah Hann placed 15th at the 1994 Championship.

Quirin earned her spot at Nationals by finishing 13th in a field of 274 runners during the New England Division III Championship at Westfield (Mass.) State College last Saturday. She was the fifth of nine individual qualifiers to make Nationals as all the runners on the top four teams at New Englands qualify automatically. Those teams were Middlebury, Williams, Amherst and Brandeis. Quirin also received second-team New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) all-star recognition this season when she finished ninth of 128 entrants at the NESCAC Championship at Bowdoin College October 27.

The daughter of Contance and Terrence Quirin of 535 Conestoga Road in Villanova, Quirin is a 2001 graduate of Radnor High School where she was first-team all-Central League, second-team all-county and a 13th-place finisher at the District I Championships in cross country. She also lettered in both lacrosse and soccer while at Radnor.

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