CINCINNATI BEARCATS CROSS COUNTRY

LARA Assistant Coach • Cross Country (W) CROFFORD 3rd Year at Cincinnati What a difference one year can make. In just her first year guiding the women’s distance program, Lara Crofford QUICK NOTES • COACH CROFFORD helped her Bearcats to numerous personal bests and program firsts. Entering the 2017 cross country season and her COACHING CAREER third year overall in Cincinnati, Crofford will now look to continue to help her athletes chase down higher goals and • Guided the women to 6th place at AAC Cross Country Championships continue the upward trajectory her Bearcats began during the 2016-17 academic year. in 2016, the best finish for the women’s team since 2004 and the Her first year saw a quick improvement for the UC women as the team placed sixth in the 2016 American Athletic first single-digit finish in the four years UC has been a member of the Conference Cross Country Championships before placing 21st in the NCAA Great Lakes Region, both improvements American Athletic Conference over the previous year’s results. In fact, the improvement on the conference level was a gigantic step forward as their • Juliana Madzia placed 13th at the 2016 XC meet, earning the pro- sixth-place showing was the highest finish for the women since the 2004 Conference USA meet where UC also was gram’s first All-Conference honor as AAC members sixth overall. In fact, Crofford’s team finished in single digits in the team standings for the first time in the four year • The Mile/1,500m run saw a great deal of improvement in 2017 as existence of the AAC after the Bearcats had placed either 10th or 11th previously. four individuals rewrote the UC Top 10 ledger, including Meg Wester- Team finishes were not the only noticeable metrics that saw improvement, either. One year after the women heide (#2 mile/#2 1,500m), Vanessa Robinson (#7/#6) and Madi- carried a race average of under 23 minutes just once (2015 American Championships), the 2016 Bearcats posted a son Dunlap (#9/#9), who added their names to both lists team average of 23:00 or faster five times, including four under 23 minutes. In fact, Crofford’s ladies bettered their • The distance medley relay team finished seventh overall at the AAC regional average by nearly one minute (0:58) in 2016 with a season-best average 22:21 (23:19 in 2015). How did the Indoor Championships, scoring the first points in Crofford’s coaching team take so much time off their average? Simple: UC’s Top 5 in 2016 finished with a better time than the team’s tenure with the program top finisher at the 2015 race. Individually, Juliana Madzia led the charge as she was the team’s top finisher in five of six races, posting sub-23 PERSONAL CAREER minute times in all five of her 6,000m races and running under 22 minutes on three occasions. One of those times • Raced at the NCAA Cross Country Championships four times for Ne- came at the American meet where she finished 13th overall to earn all-conference honors, marking the first time braska and three more times at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & that has happened for a UC woman since joining the American in time for the 2013 championships. Field Championships Transitioning to the track, Crofford’s women took aim at the program’s Top 10 ledgers and finished the 2017 cam- • NCAA Division II All-American at Shippensburg paign with 13 marks on the individual event lists and another three in relays, including the 4x1500m relay school • Ran professionally for two years in Providence, R.I., competing for NE record for the third year in a row (Dunlap, O’Donnell, V. Robinson, Westerheide). Leading the way was Meg Wester- Distance and Saucony heide, who is now ranked second in the indoor mile and outdoor 1,500m run along with the ninth and fourth-fastest • Broke the course record by 27 seconds as she ran 1:20.21 to win the 800m times outdoor and indoor, respectively. In fact, Westerheide had one of the best meets in recent years at the 2017 Flying Pig Paycor Half in Cincinnati; also was the 2016 AAC Outdoor Championships as she finished fourth overall in the 1,500m run with a time of 4:31.71, which was just Little Kings Mile Champion over one-half of one second from the school record. Her placement grabbed five team points and also made her just the second UC woman to score in a distance event (800m-10,000m) at the AAC outdoor meet, a meet the women EDUCATION won for the second year in a row. It also gave UC’s women points in both conference track meets in 2017 as Wester- • University of Nebraska ‘11 heide joined Robinson, Sylvana Ross and Sammy Hentz in placing seventh in the indoor distance medley relay. B.S. Nutrition, Exercise & Health Sciences Westerheide was not the only woman reshaping the record books as she led an assault on the 1,500m chart all • Shippensburg University ‘13 season with three others adding their names, including Vanessa Robinson (#6), Marina Wrede (#8) and Madison M.S. Organizational Development & Leadership Dunlap (#9). In fact, Westerheide also spearheaded massive changes to the indoor mile ledger that also saw Rob- inson (#7) and Dunlap (#9) join the Top 10 listing as well. In 2015-16, her first academic year on campus, the former four-year letter winner at the University of Nebraska assisted Sam Burroughs with coaching the cross country and distance teams while also heading up several day-

GoBearcats.com • @GoBearcats • @GoBearcatsTFXC • #Bearcats CINCINNATI BEARCATS CROSS COUNTRY to-day items for the program as a whole. Her first year also was eventful as the women’s program claimed its first conference title by winning the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships after taking a program-best second place indoors. On the track during her first season, she worked closely with Vanessa Robinson, who broke the school’s freshman record in the 3,000m steeplechase twice and qualified to the U.S. Junior Championships. Robinson was one of sev- en different women that also recorded times (indoor and outdoor) that ranked among the Top 10 in UC’s history. Outdoors, a pair of distance relays broke school records, including the 4x1,500m relay bettering the school mark by nearly 53 seconds and the distance medley relay taking six seconds off the previous best. During her first cross country campaign in Cincinnati (2015), the women continued to improve over the course of the season, culminating with a Top 25 finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Region. Their 24th-place finish moved them up four positions from the year before and came one meet after the team scored 227 points at the American Athletic Conference Championships, the team’s best point total in the three years the league has held a meet. The men also had a strong season with Toby Loveridge earning an all-conference selection after finishing seventh in the American Championships before he placed 8th overall in a field of over 200 runners at the NCAA Pre-National meet. As a collegiate student-athlete, Crofford excelled in both the field of competition as well as in the classroom. A point scorer (Top 8) 12 different times for the Huskers at the Big XII Conference championship events, Crofford also competed on the national stage, earning three berths into the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships as an in- dividual qualifier. On the track, she also advanced to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships three times. During the 2008 season, she competed in the 10,000m run and turned in a time that met the U.S. Olympic Team Trials ‘B’ standard. A two-time USTFCCCA All-Academic honoree, Crofford earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition, Exercise and Health Sciences in December 2011. A native of Pennsylvania, Crofford returned to the Keystone State to close out her collegiate eligibility as she en- rolled at Shippensburg University in 2012 to pursue a Master’s of Science in Organizational Development and Lead- THE CROFFORD FILE - SUCCESS AT CINCINNATI ership. Outside of the classroom, she participated in one season each of indoor and outdoor track and field where All-Conference Honorees (1) she collected an All-America honor at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships for the Raiders. At the Women’s Cross Country (1) indoor meet, she helped the distance medley relay to a sixth-place showing to earn All-America status while also Madzia, Juliana • 2016 (13th) competing in the 5,000m run. Outdoors, Crofford nearly collected a second All-American certificate, finishing ninth – one place shy of All-America honors – in the 10,000m run after setting the school record in the event. Conference Point Scorers - Track & Field At the conclusion of the 2012 outdoor season, Crofford remained at Ship, serving as a volunteer assistant coach Women’s Indoor Track & Field during a 2012 cross country season that saw the women’s team place seventh nationally at the NCAA Division II Cross Distance Medley Relay • 2017 (7th) Country Championships. Then, in 2013, she was hired full time to coach track and field. During that time, she assisted - Vanessa Robinson, Sylvana Ross, Sammy Hentz, Meg Westerheide in coaching student-athletes to four team and 11 individual conference titles while adding 11 All-America honors. The men’s distance medley relay also captured the national title indoors. Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Between her coaching stint with the Raiders and joining the Bearcats, Crofford both ran professionally and remained in Westerheide, Meg • 2017 • 1,500m Run (4th) coaching. Athletically, she ran for two years in Providence, R.I. with NE Distance and Saucony, where she trained with a pair of athletes that recently represented Team USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics: (sixth in the 10,000m run) HIGH HONORS EARNED and (ninth in the marathon). Away from competition, she also took on coaching duties at nearby Woonsocket CoSIDA Academic All-America Middle School, helping to revive a program that had been discontinued six years prior to her arrival. Madzia, Juliana • 2017 First Team (first earned in UC WTF/XC history) Crofford continues to compete in her spare time as well. Most recently, she broke a nine-year old course record by 27 seconds as she captured the 2017 Flying Pig Paycor in Cincinnati, running the hilly 13.1-mile course CoSIDA Academic All-District 5 in 1:20.21. She also has competed in the Little Kings Mile and won the elite women’s division in 2016. Madzia, Juliana • 2017 First Team

CROSS COUNTRY TEAM FINISHES UNDER CROFFORD American Athletic NCAA Great Lakes 2016 6th * 21st * highest finish in program history since 2004 (6th in Conf. USA)

DOMINATING THE HALF Coach Crofford raced to victory at the 2017 Flying Pig Paycor Half Marathon in Cinicnnati on May 7, running 1:20.21 over the hilly terrain to also brake the course record by 27 seconds, a record that had stood for nine years (2008). GoBearcats.com • @GoBearcats • @GoBearcatsTFXC • #Bearcats