Top 10 of 2015: #6 Zach Trama's All-America finish at DIII Champs

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Top 10 of 2015: #6 Zach Trama finishes as All-American

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — As 2015 enters its final days, the staff at etownbluejays.com looks back at some of the defining moments in Elizabethtown College Athletics over the last year. The list of 10 includes some of the best moments and performances in 2015, but not to be forgotten are the many victories, individual and team feats, achieved by all of Elizabethtown College's athletic programs during the last (almost) 365 days. Ringing in at No. 6 is Zach Trama's finish as an All-American for the Elizabethtown College men's cross country team at the NCAA Division III Championships.

Four different men have gone on to earn a place among the top 35 at the NCAA Championships prior to Trama this past fall, the last being Eric Reichert '12 in 2011. Reichert is the school's only multi-time All-American (three).

To put into perspective how good of a senior season Trama had in 2015, of his eight career top-ten finishes during his four-year career, five of them came this past season.

The West Chester native won his first of two meets on Sept. 12 at the team's home meet, the Blue Jay Alumni Challenge, where the current E-town men's team defeated both the alumni and Gwynedd Mercy. The following week, he set a new 4,000-meter personal best at the Dickinson Short Course Invitational.

Trama went on to back-to-back sixth-place finishes at a pair of big meets; Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational (Oct. 3) and Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle (Oct. 17). His 24:59.44 at Rowan was his 8k PR and the first he had gone under 25 minutes in his career.

When it came time for the postseason, Trama continued his dominance. He became the sixth different individual conference champion in program history, winning the Landmark meet in 26:43.77 and was named the league's Performer of the Year and All-Landmark First Team. He was a three-time all-conference runner.

Two weeks later, Trama was back near the top, this time at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional. He led the Jays to a second-place finish and an automatic spot at the NCAA Championships seven days later. Trama was All-Mideast Region for the second time in his career after placing fourth overall.

This all led to the top performance of his four years. In a field of 280 of the top runners across the country in Division III, Trama was the 26th runner to cross the finish line at Winneconne, Wis. on Nov. 21, earning him the title of All-American. He was the fifth different athlete to earn the honor in school history. Trama finished in 24:48.9, the best 8,000-meter time of his career, despite the frigid temperatures.

To go along with his accomplishments athletically, Trama was also a three-time conference Fall Academic Honor Roll selection and the 2015 Landmark Conference Men's XC Senior Scholar Athlete.
 
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Players Mentioned

Zach Trama

Zach Trama

6' 2"
Senior

Players Mentioned

Zach Trama

Zach Trama

6' 2"
Senior