Dawson native Carrie Tollefson won the women's 4-kilometer race in the U.S. Cross Country Championship Saturday in Van Cortlandt Park, N.Y.
The win qualifies the 1995 Hengstler-Ranweiler Award winner for the World Champion-ships April 1-2 in Fuk-uoka, Japan.
Tollefson finished in 12:32, five seconds ahead of runner-up Lauren Fleshman with the temperature in the low 20s.
"It was a fast track," said Tollefson by telephone Tuesday. "I felt good running and I'm excited to be going to Japan. I have to get ready for this weekend first, though."
Tollefson runs professionally for Team USA Minnesota and lives in St. Paul.
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She will be running in the 3,000-meter race at the U.S. Indoor Track and Field championships this weekend in Boston. The top two in each event qualify for the World Indoor Championships March 10-11 in Russia.
This is the third time Tollefson has qualified for the World Cross Country Championships. She was second in both 2000 and 2002. She competed and finished 11th in 2002 in Dublin, Ireland, but elected not to compete in 2004 because she was concentrating her training for the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
"My workouts are better than ever," said Tollefson. "I can tell I'm stronger and can handle more of a workload than I could before."
Tollefson, 29, was a 13-time state champion in cross country and track and field in high school. She was a four-time NCAA champion in track at Villanova and won the 1997 NCAA Cross Country Championship. She was also the NCAA Female Athlete of the Year in 1999.
