Jessica Lamp capped off a year of outstanding performances when she finished as the runner-up in the 1500-meter run at the NCAA II National Championship Meet ,hosted by Cal Poly Pomona and held at Mt .San Antonio College.
 
Lamp earned her spot in the finals with an automatic qualifying spot in the preliminary round when she was the first across the line with a time of 4:34.12 (top 4 in the section advanced automatically), which included an official split of 66.4 for the final 400m.  The event was held on Thursday evening which saw the meet delayed by 3 hours due to a rare thunderstorm in southern California.
 
In Saturday's final, event champion Heidi Evans of North Dakota ran to the front of the field and built up a 4-second lead over the other 11 runners by 800m.  Lamp began her charge at 800m, seperating herself from the remainder of the field and chipping away at Evans' lead, as the two runners came down the final 100m. Lamp continued to close on the winner, but was unable to catch Evans, who had the #1 seed coming into the championships.  Evans posted a 4:26.29 and Lamp recorded a career best of 4:27.21, which is the second fastest all-time UW-P time at this distance. The top two were more than 3 seconds ahead of third place and nearly 6 seconds ahead of the remainder of the field.
 
Lamp finished off the 2007-2008 with four NCAA All-American awards from national meets.  She was 14th in the cross country nationals, fourth at 800m along with being a member of the sixth place distance medley relay at the indoor meet, to go along with her second place finish at the outdoor meet.  In her career, the junior has earned nine NCAA All-American awards.
 
Lamp joins a group of "elite" UW-P women in the past 14 months to have earned second place finishes at NCAA Track Nationals.  Jill Winkler placed secbnd in the 3000m run last year at outdoor nationals and Naomi Fulton earned a second place finish at the 2007 indoor mile.  Paula Stokman is the only NCAA Champion in UW-P track history.  She won the indoor 3000m run in 1992.  There is a total of eight women who have won collegiate running titles when NAIA Championships are included.  There is also a group of nine women who earned NAIA race walking championships.
 
Fulton Completes Career with All American Honors at 3000m
 
Senior Naomi Fulton completed her outstanding UW-Parkside running career with a personal best in the 3000m Run (9:59.50) which earned her an eighth place finish in the event bringing with that finish NCAA All-American Honors.
 
Fulton advanced to the Friday evening final with a fourth place finish in her prelim section on Thursday with a time of 10:03.51, which improved on her season best at the time of 10:08.60.  The 3000m prelims were part of the 3-hour thunderstorm delay which left the start of the race at 10:05 p.m. PDT.
 
In the finals, Fulton worked with the second half of the field of 12 runners over the first 2 km in anticipation of a fast front pace that would perhaps draw some athletes back during the closing stages.  The race held together at the front for the most part and it took an exceptional effort to work into the Top 8 and hold that spot to the finish line.
 
In her four year UW-P career ,Fulton finished with a total of nine NCAA All-American awards including four during her senior year.  This year she earned All-American honors in cross country with a Top 30 finish at nationals, during the indoor ,ational meet she placed fifth in the mile and was a member of sixth place distance medley relay team to go along with her eighth place finish at this championship.
 
Among the many highlights of her career was her UW-P school record in the indoor mile, which she ran as a junior in 2007.  Her time of 4:47.27 came at the indoor national meet where she finished second, breaking the 31 year old school record of Kim Piper-Merritt, one of the noted USA pioneers of women's running.  She also is a member of the school record distance medley relay team along with the third fastest time in school history at 1500m, bettered only by Lamp's performance at this year's national meet and three-time US Olympian Michelle Marter-Rohl's school record of 4:21.09, set in 1988.
 
UW-P Coach Mike De Witt had these comments:  "It took outstanding efforts by two of the best runners that have been a part of the long tradition of UW-Parkside middle distance and distance running.  Jessica Lamp made a valiant effort to race at her best in earning her second place finish in the 1500m.  Naomi Fulton dug deep to finish off a brilliant career with a championship performance in her final race.  It was a very special national meet to be able to assist two athletes that have a combined total of 18 All Americans.  I simply can't say enough about the great job both athletes did at this meet and have done throughout their careers, not only are they outstanding athletes, but they are the best in all that they attempt."