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The Daily Tar Heel

Flanagan Wins Cross Country Title at NCAAs

Flanagan blazed the Gibson Course, setting a record time of 19 minutes, 36 seconds to win UNC's first ever individual national title in cross country.

The Marblehead, Mass., native won her second consecutive NCAA Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year award after winning the event.

"It's very exciting," Flanagan said.

"You pump up a national championship as one of those things that is so difficult to win, and this year it wasn't as hard as I expected it to be.

"That's a tribute to how hard I've worked and the mental and physical toughness I've gained over the last year," Flanagan said.

"It's a relief because it was expected of me to win it, especially after last year, but I was very confident going into the championship."

North Carolina's women's cross country team finished 21st at the NCAA Championship. Tar Heel coach Michael Whittlesey was pumped to see Flanagan's highly touted talent translate into a title.

"It was really exciting to see Shalane win the national title," Whittlesey said. "The pressure was taken off of her early when she trailed for the first mile, mile and a half, but then gained the lead and never relinquished it.

"Seeing her finish at the end was a great thrill."

The Tar Heels battled tough weather conditions with high winds and a temperature of 30 degrees. BYU outpaced the rest of the 31 teams with its second straight national title.

"We had a difficult start today," Whittlesey said. "After the slow start, I thought the girls really competed the entire race and battled back at the end. I was proud of the way they kept working."

North Carolina finishes the season with one championship (Campbell Invite) and an individual national title.

Flanagan's victory is her first in her 2 1/2-year career at North Carolina. She earned All-America honors for the third straight season in cross country in 2002.

To round out the UNC competitors, senior Liz Awtrey (Burke, Va.) finished her last NCAA race in 161st place with a time of 22:02.5.

Junior Jennie Sucher took 214th place with a time of 23:43.5.

Sophomores Erin Donohue and Alice Schmidt completed the race with times of 21:13.5 (61st) and 21:34.5 (110th), respectively.

Freshmen Cassie King and Jessica Perry finished 183rd (22:15.2) and 177th (22:12.6), respectively.

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