Franklin & Marsahll Honors 1985 National Champion Women's Cross Country Team

by Sports Information
6/5/06

LANCASTER, PA – Franklin & Marshall College honored the 1985 national championship women’s cross country team at a ceremony during the Class of 1986 reunion this weekend.

Championship rings were presented to the runners who competed at the championship meets in Atlanta. The group includes Lois Lucente Narr, Amanda Shaw Milewski, Teri Smith Hudson, Nancy Leet Mangan, Laurie Reynolds Beyer, Katrina Harriman Condi, Deidre Hemingway Miller and alternates Kelly Connell Williams, Liz Leonard Schmidt and Margo Hamberger Fox, while the other members of the team received watches.

The 1985 Women's Cross Country Team made Franklin & Marshall College history by claiming the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III National Championship, the only team to ever win an NCAA championship.

The NCAA Mid-East Regional champions in 1984 and 1985, and the Middle Atlantic Conference champions from 1982-1985, the Diplomats dominated wherever they ran taking first place at the Millersville, Kutztown, Trenton State, Dickinson and Temple Lady Owl Invitationals against Division I, II and III talent.

Overall, under coach Ed Woge, the F&M women's team went 8-0 in dual meets behind Athletic Hall of Fame members Lucente Narr (inducted in 1992) and Shaw Milewski (inducted 1996).

At the national championship meet, Lucente Narr and Shaw Milewski led the team by earning All-America honors by finishing fourth and seventh, respectively as the Diplomats outdistanced runner-up St. Thomas by eight points, 73 to 81, and improved on third place finishes at the national meet in 1983 and 1984.

The title marked the first national championship earned by an F&M team in competition, as the men's soccer team was declared national champions by a coaches' poll in 1952.