Westlake, Ohio - In honor of its 40-year anniversary, the North Coast Athletic Coast Athletic Conference will be selecting All-Decade teams across its 23 championship sports, starting with cross country. 

The honor is open to student-athletes that competed in the NCAC between the 2013-14 and the 2022-23 seasons who earned Player of the Year honors or those who earned All-NCAC first-team laurels a minimum of three times. 

Representing Oberlin on the list were Emma Lehmann '15, Linnea Halsten '19, Marija Crook '20, and Geno Arthur '16. 

"Just when we thought we could not be more proud of Emma, Geno, Linnea, and Marija we receive this wonderful news and recognition from the conference," longtime Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Ray Appenheimer said. "These were four bright lights, dominant runners, and amazing teammates whose accomplishments deserve this recognition."

A native of San Francisco, California Lehmann was the 2014 NCAC Runner of the Year after she took medalist honors in 23:15.7 to lead Oberlin to the team championship with just 30 points. She would go on to finish second at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships and then cap off an illustrious senior season with All-America honors by placing ninth in the nation at the NCAA Championships with a time of 21:55.9. 

A four-year conference team champion, Lehmann earned second-team All-NCAC laurels as a first-year in 2021 with a 12th-place finish before going to earn first-team honors each year between 2012-14.

Halsten continued the long lineage of elite distance runners from Oberlin, earning NCAC Newcomer of the Year honors in 2015 and was a four-time All-NCAC first-team selection. The 2017 NCAC Runner of the Year, Halsten won the conference title by over 34 seconds with a time of 21:23.3. 

The 2017 NCAA Great Lakes All-Region champion, Halsten finished no worse than seventh in any NCAC Championship meet of her career. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, she is one of just two of the 19 total honorees between the men's and women's teams to have earned first-team all-conference honors for four years. 

Crook made an impression for the onset, earning NCAC Newcomer of the Year accolades at the 2016 Championships with a 10th-place showing (23:37.1). The Carrboro, North Carolina, native would follow with first-team performances in each of the next three seasons while helping Oberlin win the NCAC in 2018 and 2019. 

Crook would also earn Great Lakes Region honors in each season between 2017-19, finishing as high as sixth place as a senior. 

One of the greatest male distance runners in school history, Arthur was the 2015 NCAC Runner of the Year and earned All-NCAC first-team honors in each season between 2012-15. 

A four-year Great Lakes All-Region selection, Arthur also earned NCAA All-America honors in 2014 and 2015, placing 19th as a junior and 22nd as senior. A native of Camarillo, California, he is the only male runner in program history to be a two-time All-American in cross country. 

While these four athletes are certainly deserving of this praise, there are other great Oberlin harriers who may have missed the cut due to timing. 

"Those four names wouldn't be there without Kyle Neal, Carey Lyons, Sarah Jane Kerwin, Josh Urso, and Oona Jung-Beeman," Appenheimer said. "The last decade of running in the NCAC belongs to all of them - and so many more Oberlin College cross country runners - who worked so hard, believed in one another, and accomplished so much."

In total, 19 athletes earned the recognition with 10 men and nine women being honored. 

The current cross country team members are preparing for Friday's 5K Twilight meet.