GREENWOOD, Ind. – Cedarville sophomore Carsyn Koch was presented with United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Athlete of the Week honors for the second time this spring.
 
Koch is quickly becoming one of the fastest college women in the nation at 800 meters, and as of this weekend, she can officially call herself the fastest-ever in NCAA Division II.
 
Just a sophomore, the reigning NCAA Indoor champ and outdoor national runner-up ran 2:02.39 Sunday night at the Stanford Payton Jordan Invitational to finish fourth in her section of professionals. She topped by less than a tenth of a second the long-standing DII record of 2:02.48 set way back at the 1990 NCAA DII Championships by Cal Poly’s Teena Colebrook.
 
No one in her section closed the final lap faster than Koch. After coming through the bell at the back of the pack, she ran 1:02.81 over the final quarter mile to move up from ninth to fourth.
 
The surge assured Koch her status as just the third woman in DII history to break the 2:03 barrier during the collegiate season, and the first to do so prior to the NCAA Championships.
 
She also earned USTFCCCA national honors back on April 20 for NCAA Division II Athlete of the Week.