NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships Web Site

McMurry's Carla Lewis will run Saturday in Cleveland, Ohio as the first female runner in the school's history to reach the NCAA Division III national meet. Lewis along with her head coach David Chandler, left Thursday for the meet hosted by Baldwin Wallace Wallace College.

Lewis will run the final 6K race of her collegiate career at the Highland Park Golf Course at 11 a.m. EST. To reach the national meet, a runner must finish in the top 12 places at the NCAA Region meets. Lewis' time of 24:04 Saturday at the NCAA Division III South/Southeast Region meet in Greensboro, N.C. gave her a sixth-place finish and an NCAA all-region selection.

 “Carla is eager and excited to run in the national meet,” said Chandler. “She has been great for our program, she's very energetic and positive. She will compete well; She has a lot of push in her legs and can handle the national meet.”

Earlier this season, Lewis began the year with four-straight American Southwest Conference Runner of the Week awards. It was foreshadowing for Oct. 31 in Clinton, Miss. when she became the first runner in school history and the third female runner in the ASC to win the individual championship twice. She defeated her competition by more than 18 seconds at the conference championships and added the first-place finish to her resume, which already had one individual title in 2006.

Her best 6K time of the season came Sept. 26 at the Texas Division III championships in Seguin when she ran a 24:00.00 flat to finish second overall and help McMurry win the state meet.

Chandler, said at this point in the senior's career, there isn't much to tell Lewis in the way of advice.

“I told her: keep it simple. Just run,” he said.

And regardless of the outcome Saturday morning, Lewis has run into the school record books as the first female runner to ever make the national meet.