WEBSTER GROVES – Webster University Athletics has begun unveiling its All-Decade Teams from the 2010s as it compiles the best student-athletes across the past 10 seasons (2010-19) in each of Webster's intercollegiate athletic teams. Our fifth team to be unveiled is the 2010-19 All-Decade Women's Cross Country Team.
During the decade, Webster reached new heights in women's cross country as they captured four St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, including ending the decade by winning three consecutive league titles. In the decade, Webster won SLIAC titles in 2011, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and were the league runners-up in 2010 and 2016. In addition, the team went from finishing 25th at the 2010 NCAA Regionals to a school record best finish of 18th at the 2019 NCAA Regionals.
Along with the team successes, Webster's runners also achieved numerous accolades in the decade as the 12 members of the All-Decade Team earned a combined 33 All-SLIAC honors, including two Gorloks – Heather Heisse and Holly Goergen – earning All-SLIAC honors four times. Along with earning 33 All-SLIAC honors, the All-Decade Team members received a combined 22 first team honors and two members of the team captured individual championships as Valerie Martin won the SLIAC title in 2015 and
Kalleigh Linthicum took home the SLIAC title in 2019.
In addition, two All-Decade Team members – Meghan Illig and
Meredith Sowers were NCAA Woman of the Year nominees in 2017 and 2020 respectively and the All-Decade Team members combined to earn 14 SLIAC Runner of the Week accolades, including Linthicum taking home four weekly honors in 2019.
Listed below are the 12 members of the Webster Athletics Women's Cross Country Team of the Decade for the 2010s. The student-athletes on the All-Decade Team, who were selected by Webster head coach
Dan Graber, are listed alphabetically.
Savannah Brewer (Flagstaff, Ariz. – 2017-present)
Brewer is one of five current Gorloks to earn a spot on the All-Decade Team as she has run for the Gorloks the past three years, including earning All-SLIAC honors in 2019 after placing 14th at the 2019 SLIAC Championships. In her time at Webster, she has had one Top 10 finish and four Top 20 finishes.
Lauren Coleman (St. Peters, Mo. – 2017-18)
Despite only running two years in the decade (2017-18), Coleman was a two-time All-SLIAC selection, including earning First-Team All-SLIAC honors as a freshman in 2017 after finishing fifth at the SLIAC Championships. With her fifth place finish at the 2017 SLIAC Championships, she earned the SLIAC Newcomer of the Year honor. In addition to her two All-SLIAC and Newcomer of the Year honors in 2017, she also took home a SLIAC Runner of the Week accolade in 2017. She had two Top 10 finishes and three Top 20 finishes as a Gorlok.
Taylor Dunning (Chester, Ill. – 2018-present)
One of five current Gorloks to earn a spot on the All-Decade Team, Dunning has earned All-SLIAC honors the past two seasons, including taking home first team honors in 2019 after finishing sixth at the 2019 SLIAC Championships. Over the past two seasons, she has had one Top 10 finish and two Top 20 finishes and recorded a personal best 6K time of 24:18.7 at the 2019 SLIAC Championships.
Minnell Fundora (Miami, Fla. – 2017-present)
Another of the five current Gorloks to earn a spot on the All-Decade Team, Fundora ran in 2017 and 2018 and then missed the 2019 season due to studying abroad. In 2018, she was a First-Team All-SLIAC performer after recording a fourth place finish at the 2018 SLIAC Championships and at the 2018 SLIAC Championships, she ran a personal best 6K time of 23:40.62, which is 18th on the school's all-time 6K chart.
Holly Goergen (Phoenix, Ariz. – 2014-17)
One of two four-time All-SLIAC honorees on the 2010s All-Decade Team, Goergen ran for the Gorloks from 2014-17 and along with being a four-time All-SLIAC selection, she was a three-time First-Team All-SLIAC honoree in 2015, 2016 and 2017. She recorded six Top 10 finishes, including a third place finish at the 2017 SLIAC Championships en route to helping lead the Gorloks to their second league title. She has had nine career Top 20 placements, was a Runner of the Week in 2016 and earned the Webster Athletics' Inspiration Award in 2016-17. She also has two Top 5 all-time 6K times in program history as her time of 23:09 at the 2017 NCAA Regionals is third in school history, while her time of 23:17 at the 2017 SLIAC Championships is fifth all-time in program history.
Julie Greenough (Theodosia, Mo. – 2010-13)
In her four years at Webster, Greenough was a three-time All-SLIAC honoree in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and earned first team honors in 2011 after placing fourth at the SLIAC Championships and helping lead the Gorloks to its first-ever league title in women's cross country. She completed her Webster career with one Top 10 finish and four Top 20 finishes.
Heather Heisse (Silex, Mo. – 2010-13)
One of three members of the 2010s All-Decade Team to earn All-SLIAC honors all four years as she earned first team honors in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and was a second team selection as a freshman in 2010. Recorded a third place finish at the 2013 SLIAC Championships and was also sixth in 2011 and seventh in 2012. Holds the school records in both the 6K and 5K as she ran a school record 6K time of 22:37 at the 2013 SLIAC Championships and her school record 5K time of 19:11 was set at the 2012 Missouri S&T Invitational. In fact, she has three of the school's five all-time top 5K times. Heisse recorded four Top 10 finishes in her career and had nine Top 20 placements.
Kaitlin Higgins (Fenton, Mo. – 2019-present)
Another of the five current Gorloks to earn a spot on the All-Decade Team as in her first season at Webster in 2019, Higgins earned First-Team All-SLIAC honors after placing third at the 2019 SLIAC Championships and that third place finish helped Higgins take home SLIAC Newcomer of the Year honors. Along with her third place finish at the SLIAC Championships, she also placed third at the H.W. Wright Classic and she added a 60th overall place at the NCAA Midwest Regionals as she ran a personal best 6K time of 23:50.2.
Meghan Illig (St. Louis, Mo. – 2014-17)
Illig ran in in the middle part of the decade and in her four years as a Gorlok, she was a three-time All-SLIAC honoree, including earning first team honors (2015, 2016, 2017) all of those three years. Along with earning three All-SLIAC accolades, she was also named a nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year in 2017-18, a CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District selection in 2017-18 and was selected as the Webster Athletics Scholar Athlete Award in 2017-18. Additionally, she earned two SLIAC Runner of the Week honors in 2017 and was a two-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team in 2015 and 2017. Throughout her career, she had four Top 10 finishes and a school-record tying 11 Top 20 finishes. She also holds two of the top 10 6K times in the program's history with her time of 23:17 at the 2017 NCAA Regionals and her time of 23:32 at the 2017 SLIAC Championships.
Kalleigh Linthicum (Lake St. Louis – 2017-present)
One of five current Gorloks that were named to the 2010s All-Decade Team, Linthicum has been a three-time All-SLIAC honoree, including earning first team honors in 2018 and 2019. During the 2019 season, Linthicum became just the third Gorlok women's cross country runner to win the individual title at the SLIAC Championships and that individual title helped her earn the SLIAC Runner of the Year accolade. Along with being the league's individual champion in 2019, she also took home four SLIAC Runner of the Week accolades, set a school record in the 4K with a time of 15:11.4 at the Western Illinois Early Bird and recorded a school-best finish of 54th place at the NCAA Midwest Regionals as she ran the fifth fastest time (23:45.5) in an NCAA Regional in school history. Through three years as a Gorlok, she has had six Top 10 finishes, including a school record tying four Top 10 placements in 2019 and has also had three career Top 20 finishes and owns two of the top nine 6K times in school history.
Valerie Martin (St. Louis, Mo. – 2014-16)
One of the top women's cross country runners in school history, Martin was a three-time First-Team All-SLIAC selection and was the league's overall individual champion at the 2015 SLIAC Championships. Along with winning the league's individual title, she was the SLIAC Runner of the Year in 2015 and the SLIAC Newcomer of the Year in 2014. She was also a three-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team and a two-time SLIAC Runner of the Week in 2015. Additionally, she took home the Webster Athletics President's Award in 2015-16. In her time at Webster, Martin had seven Top 10 finishes and 10 Top 20 finishes and currently holds the school's second fastest times in both the 5K (19:30) and 6K (23:07). Her 5K time was set at the 2015 Louisville Classic and the 6K time was set at the 2015 SLIAC Championships.
Jane McKibben (St. Louis, Mo. – 2009-12)
McKibben ran three years in the decade and in those three years, she was a two-time All-SLIAC selection in 2010 and 2011 and earned First-Team All-SLIAC honors after placing seventh at the 2011 SLIAC Championships. She was a member of Webster's first-ever SLIAC championship team in 2011 as she placed 10th at the SLIAC Championships. In her career, she had four Top 10 finishes and six Top 20 finishes.
Meredith Sowers (Rolla, Mo. – 2016-19)
Another solid four-year runner for the Gorloks, Sowers competed over the final four years of the decade and was a three-time First-Team All-SLIAC selection as she was honored in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Additionally, she was a three-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team. As a Gorlok, Sowers placed seventh, third and fifth respectively in the SLIAC Championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In her time at Webster, Sowers, who was the NCAA Woman of the Year nominee this year and was also named the recipient of the 2019-20 Webster Athletics Chancellors Award, had four Top 10 and four more Top 20 finishes.
Eroica Stackhouse (Tipton, Ind. – 2010-13)
In the opening four years of the decade, Stackhouse, who ran at Webster from 2010-13, was a three-time All-SLIAC honoree. She was a member of Webster's first-ever SLIAC cross country championship team in 2011 and had three Top 10 finishes in the SLIAC Championships, including placing eighth in both 2010 and 2011 and ninth in 2012. Additionally, she was named to the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship Team in 2012. In her career, she had three Top 10 finishes and four Top 20 finishes.
