Starting with a Team Newcomer of the Year award in 2008, senior cross country runner Mary Pfeifer began a legacy at Wittenberg that is hard to beat. The biology major from Dublin, Ohio has earned multiple awards since her freshman year, including four First Team All-NCAC honors, another handful of All-Great Lakes Region honors, and Team Most Valuable Runner in 2010. And as if that wasn’t enough, Pfeifer will look to make history on Nov. 19 by being the second Wittenberg runner to appear in the NCAA Division III National Championship.
“She is by far the best cross country runner I have coached in my 33 years of college coaching, and in the history of female runners at Wittenberg,” said Head Coach Craig Penney.
Pfeifer will be one of 56 individuals competing in the event, which will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The senior will have to place within the top 35 in order to earn All-American honors, which shouldn’t be too difficult considering her impressive seventh place finish in regionals.
In her ground breaking performance at Oberlin for the Regional Championship meet, Pfeifer finished with a time of 21:57.82 and was just seconds behind the sixth place runner. Thanks to her outstanding time and those of other great Wittenberg athletes including Molly King, who ended the race with a time of 22:52.68, the Tigers were able to earn 11th place in the meet, which Coach Penney describes as a “huge step in a very strong regional.”
In the classroom, Pfeifer has done extremely well with a 3.1 overall GPA and is also earning a minor in health science along with her major in biology. She is a member of the Pre-Health Club and works as editor of Spectrum Magazine according to Wittenberg’s athletic website. The senior has spent time volunteering at the Springfield Regional Medical Center and is one of the talented workers in Wittenberg’s writing center.
(Ben Groff / s12.bgroff@wittenberg.edu)
