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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Grace Steinmetz wanted to do something special for her nineteenth birthday. What she did was indeed special as she ran to a fifth-place finish at today's NAIA National Cross Country Championship in Tallahassee, Florida. She will take home an All-American plaque, presented to the top forty finishers, as her birthday present.

Held on Tallahassee's famed Apalachee Regional Park Course, a site that will host the World Cross Country Championships in January, thirty-six teams and eighty-four individuals lined up at 8:30 AM in heavy fog and 57 degrees. The two-loop course features rolling terrain, grass and gravel surfacing, and a challenging climb in the final kilometer.

Steinmetz immediately inserted herself into the mix with defending champion Jaynie Halterman jumping to an early five-second lead by the kilometer mark. Steinmetz found herself leading a chase pack of six at two kilometers, ten seconds back of the leader. She would be passed by one runner in the third kilometer, another one in the fourth, and then one more in the final K. All of those runners had been previous NAIA cross country All-Americans, led by Halterman, who ran to a thirty-second victory.

For Steinmetz, it was a repeat of what she had done over the final four races of the season, setting out at a hard opening pace and holding it all the way to the finish. "She raced like a veteran today," commented assistant coach Matt Musiel. "If there are nerves, you'd never know it."

Head coach Craig Christians, "I called her 'Amazing Grace' early on in the season, and that's really the best word to describe what she's accomplished, not only as a runner but as a freshman. She was a middle-of-the-pack runner at the Iowa 1A meet a year ago. A coach is lucky to have an athlete like her come along in a coaching career, and I've been blessed with two of them in eight years (Madison Nelson was a three-time cross country All-American for the Bruins). A cross country All-American four years in a row. Not many programs can make that statement. I have to recognize the contributions of assistant Matt Musiel, who shoulders the lion's share of our training and recruiting. I'm lucky to have someone like him pushing our program forward."

With their eighth season of cross country in the books, the Bruins turn their attention to the indoor track season, with racing to get underway in mid-December.