Three BYU Harriers Earn All-America Citations

PROVO, Utah (Nov. 28, 2000) Senior Melanie Steere and juniors Tara Northcutt and John Hedengren were named to the 2000 Division I Cross Country All-America team for their performances at the NCAA Championships, held Nov. 20 in Ames, Iowa.

All-America Awards are presented to the top 30 overall finishers in both the men's and the women's races. Additionally, according to a recently-advented foreign displacer rule, the awards are extended until a total of 30 Americans in each division receive All-American status.

Steere, a two-time All-American in track and field, won her first cross country All-America award with a 17th-place finish at the NCAA meet. She covered the 6,000-meter course in a personal best time of 21:12.5. Steere was a member of the BYU distance medley team that took 2nd place at the 1999 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. She also finished 6th in the 800-meter race at the 2000 Outdoor Championships.

Crossing the finish line just four tenths of a second behind her teammate (21:12.9), Northcutt earned her second consecutive cross country All-America award with an 18th-place finish. She finished in 17th place at the 1999 national championship meet. Northcutt is also a two-time All-American in track and field. She finished 2nd in the 10,000-meter run at the 1999 NCAA outdoor meet, and came back to win the title in that same event at the 2000 outdoor championships.

On the men's side, Hedengren led the way for BYU, recording a 37th-place finish in a time of 31:04.9 for the 10,000-meter race. The top thirty finishers in the men's race included 13 foreign athletes, allowing the All-America award to be extended all the way to the 46th overall finisher. The citation was the first athletic All-America award for Hedengren. During the 1999 cross country season, he was named to the GTE Academic All-America Third Team, and in the spring of this year he was selected to the Second Team for maintaining a 3.95 overall GPA in chemical engineering.