Blaase Named Cross Country All-American
November 27, 2015 | Track & Field
NEW ORLEANS - Tennessee senior Chelsea Blaase was named an All-American by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) this week when it announced the 80 student-athletes who earned All-America honors by finishing among the top-40 in the men's and women's races at the 2015 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.
At the conference level, the Pac-12 dominated with 19 All-Americans (12 men, seven women), while the Mountain West had 11 (eight women, three men) for the second most. The ACC brought home 10 honors (seven men, three women), while the SEC nabbed seven (five women, two men).
Blaase finished 14th at the 2015 NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championship on Nov. 21 at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park to earn All-America honors for the second-straight year.
Blaase, who placed 10th at the 2014 NCAA Championships, joins Brenda Webb (1977, 1978) and Kathy Bryant-Hadler (1980, 1981, 1982) as Tennessee's only multi-year women's cross country All-Americans. Blaase, Webb and Bryant-Hadler are also the only three UT women to post multiple top-15 finishes at nationals.
Blaase wraps one of the most impressive Tennessee cross country careers. She posted 13-straight top-10 finishes over a two-year span (2013-15) with 10 top-three finishes and four career wins. Blaase punched her second ticket to the NCAA Championships when she won the 2015 NCAA South Regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Her rise to national elite status over the last four years has been an inspiring journey of perseverance, hard work and a willingness to evolve as an athlete. After a frustrating freshman campaign in which she was finishing in the middle or at the back of the pack, Blaase committed the summer of 2013 to self-improvement and emerged as a top-20 and top-10 finisher as a sophomore. In 2014 she became one of the best in the country and qualified for her first trip to nationals, where she became the first Tennessee women's cross country runner to be named an All-American since Sarah Bowman 2008 and UT's first top-10 finisher at nationals since Patty Wiegand in 1989.
