Ballard Brings Home All-American Honors

Senior co-captain Carmen Ballard made her last race as a Columbia cross country runner truly memorable when she earned All-American honors at yesterday’s NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Placing 23rd out of 253 runners, Ballard ran the 6,000-meter race in 20:48.7, six seconds shy of her personal best for the event. While managing to hold her own against runners from nationally-competitive teams like the University of Oregon, Stanford University, and the University of Colorado, Ballard also defeated all other individual qualifiers from the Northeast, including Ivy Leaguers Smita Gupta of Brown and Lindsay Donaldson of Yale. In the process, Ballard placed ahead of the first runners from Princeton, the Ivy League champions, and Providence College, the Northeast regional titleholders. Junior Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech University won the individual championship race with a time of 19:30.9, and Stanford took this year’s team title.
Ballard was the only Lion to compete at nationals, and was an automatic qualifier for the race after placing fifth in the Northeast regional meet earlier this month. She also placed fourth at the Ivy League Championships the last two years, making her a two-time All-Ivy runner. Yesterday’s meet at Indiana State University was Ballard’s third trip to nationals in her collegiate career. Her performance makes her the first Columbia All-American cross country runner since 2005.

With Ballard now departing from the Lions’ squad, future hope for a NCAA national bid in the next season lies in freshman Jackie Drouin, who took 11th at the Ivy League Championships and 34th at NCAA Northeast behind Ballard and fellow senior Stephanie Lenihan. Drouin has been the Light Blue’s strongest freshman this season, running near the front of the Columbia pack.

Ballard will, however, continue on to compete in this year’s track season as a distance runner, focusing on the 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter. After taking fourth in the 1,500-meter and fifth in the 3,000-meter at the outdoor Ivy League Championships last season, Ballard leaves track and cross country enthusiasts waiting for yet another performance that will lead her to race in the national arena.