PSAC Release

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Slippery Rock University cross country standout Marianne Abdalah was named Thursday as the 2021 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year when the league announced its major award winners for the season.
 
Abdalah, a junior transfer from West Virginia University, becomes just the second Slippery Rock female to ever earn the Cross Country Athlete of the Year honor and the first since Joan Anderson won the award in 1995.
 
The Wexford, Pennsylvania native was the top finisher for SRU in every race she ran this season and put together three outstanding performances during the championship portion of the season.
 
She took third overall at the PSAC Championships to pick up a first team All-PSAC honor and improved to second overall and was the top PSAC finisher at the Atlantic Region Championships, which earned her a first team All-Region honor and punched her ticket to the National Championship meet as an individual qualifier.
 
Abdalah was the first Slippery Rock female to qualify for the national meet since 2012.
 
At nationals, she placed 83rd overall in one of the most talent-laden fields in Division II history. She led all runners from the Atlantic Region, placing 10 spots higher than any other runner from the region, and finished 78 places ahead of the second PSAC runner in that race.  
 
Abdalah has run just one race during the indoor track and field season since cross country ended and she picked up right where she left off. She currently owns the fastest 5,000-meter time in the PSAC by more than a minute with her mark of 17:37.37.
 
 

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