TOWSON, Md. --- Moravian College senior Natalie Novotni has been selected as one of the Landmark Conference Women's Cross Country Athletes of the Week.
With the cancellation of the traditional Landmark fall season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Landmark Conference will be recognizing an athlete from each member institution in each conference-sponsored fall sports over the next few weeks. Honorees were nominated for recognition by their respective institution based on achievements from the shortened season and career accolades.
Novotni was selected as the Landmark Conference Runner of the Year in both 2018 and 2019 after winning the Landmark Conference Women's Cross Country Championship meet. She also earned Landmark All-Conference First Team honors for her two titles and finished as high as 32nd in the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional race in 2019. On the track, Novotni captured the Landmark Conference Indoor titles in the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs in 2020 and the 3,000-meter run in 2019. She was the runner-up in the indoor 5,000-meter run in 2019, and also in the same distance outdoors in 2019.
"Natalie has been one of the best distance runners in our conference the past four years, highlighted by winning Landmarks her sophomore and junior years," noted Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Jesse Baumann. "One of our early-season traditions is to start the season off with a 1600m as a barometer for our fitness. She ran the fastest in the 10 years I've been doing that here, and that includes running faster than multiple NCAA qualifiers, even an All-American! She managed to run some low 18:00 5ks on the track without rival competition to push her. Seeing the workouts she was running, I honestly feel not only could she have won Landmarks again this fall, I sincerely believe she would have been in contention for All-American honors at NCAAs in cross country if we had a championship in November."
View the full Landmark Conference Athlete of the Week list at https://landmark.prestosports.com/sports/xc/2020-21/releases/2021-04-01wxcaotw.
