Patriot senior Amina Amaddah finished 14th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships today in Greenville, SC, to become the fourth cross country All-American in school history. For her achievement, she was named the George Mason Athlete of the Week.
A senior from Casablanca, Morocco, Amaddah covered the challenging five-kilometer course on the campus of Furman University in 17:01 to also become the second-highest finisher in George Mason history behind Kim Saddic (who finished 11th in 1991). Amaddah has now competed in five consecutive NCAA Championships counting cross country, indoor track and outdoor track and will be one to watch when the Patriots take to the oval this winter and spring.
Villanova's Carrie Tollefson captured the overall individual title, followed by Arizona's Amy Skieresz. Tollefson's winning time was 16:29 while Skieresz clocked in 10 seconds behind. The team race was even more exciting as BYU edged defending champion Stanford 100-102 in what would be the closest team finish since 1987 when Oregon slipped by N.C. State by two points, 97-99.
For Amaddah, earning All-American status in cross country is just another step in her amazing collegiate career which was interrupted three years ago in order to have a baby.
"Her first year here we knew she was lacking a lot of background and that the most important thing was establishing a pattern of training," said George Mason women's cross country coach Norm Gordon, who discovered the talented distance runner while she was competing at the World University Games in Buffalo, NY. "She has great support from her husband which is important in order for her to be able to juggle school, family and running. Obviously she's had to make sacrifices to get to where she is, especially in the family area, because it takes a special individual to handle all those activities."