LHU Athletics Press Release

	December 1, 2003 Cowan Named PSAC Cross Country's Athlete of the Year Head Coach Aaron Russell Earns Men's Coach of the Year Honors

	(Lock Haven, Pa.) - Junior harrier Chris Cowan (Horseheads, N.Y./Thomas A. Edison) was selected as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Cross Country Athlete of the Year and second-year head coach Aaron Russell was named the PSAC Men’s Coach of the Year in voting conducted by the league’s head coaches. Chris Cowan, a junior, captured his first All-America title and the first for a Lock Haven runner since the 2000 season with a 33^rd place finish at the NCAA Division II National Championship. Cowan won the individual title at the PSAC Championship, setting a course record and finishing 42 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. He followed that performance with an All-East region finish, placing third at the NCAA Division II East Region Championship. Over the course of the regular season, Cowan was a first-place finisher at the NYU Invitational, the Yellowjacket Cross Country Invitational and the Mansfield Tri-Meet. Head Coach Aaron Russell earns PSAC Coach of the Year honors in only his second season as the mentor of the Bald Eagles. Russell, a native of Lincoln , Maine , guided Lock Haven to a record-setting season which culminated in a 16^th-place finish at the national championship. The nationals finish was the second-best historical placing by the program, and marked only the seventh time since the program’s inception that the team had qualified for the trip to the national meet. The 2003 Bald Eagles captured the school’s first-ever PSAC crown by placing five runners among the top 15 and followed up that performance with its first NCAA Division II East Region title. Lock Haven climbed in the national rankings throughout the season, peaking as high as 13^th in Division II. Russell was also named the NCAA Division II East Region Coach of the Year. Other PSAC cross country award winners included Women’s Athlete of the Year Mindy Sawtelle of Indiana ( Pa. ), Chris Cummings of Mansfield and Molly Lare of Kutztown as the Rookies of the Year, and Edinboro’s Doug Watts as the Women’s Coach of the Year.	(left) Head Coach Aaron Russell was named the PSAC Men's Coach of the Year; (right) Junior Chris Cowan earned PSAC Athlete of the Year honors.
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