SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Susquehanna University junior Emily Lepley has been honored by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as its Division III Mideast Regional Women's Track Athlete of the Year, as voted upon by members of the USTFCCCA.

Lepley (Lewistown, PA/Lewistown) was honored along with other award winners from the group's eight regions at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships banquet at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill. on Wednesday evening. She will be competing in both the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles at the championships, which begin Thursday and run through Saturday.

Lepley won the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles for the second straight year at the Middle Atlantic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, while adding a third-place finish in the 400 meters to help the Crusaders to a third-place finish in the team standings.

She is a three-time All-American in the hurdles and is the defending champion in the 400-meter hurdles after winning last year in a school-record time of 1:01.20. She is seeded fifth in the 100 hurdles with a school-record time of 14.39 seconds set at Shippensburg on April 29, and is seeded eighth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:02.45 set at Villanova on May 15.

Lepley earned All-America honors with a sixth-place finish in the 100 hurdles in 2004, in the 400 hurdles with her national championship in 2005, and in the 55-meter hurdles after taking seventh at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field championships in March.

Should she finish eighth or better in either event, Lepley would join Mike Spangler as the only four-time All-Americans in Susquehanna track and field history. Spangler won four national championships and was a seven-time All-American in the 200 and 400 meters from 1985 to 1988.

In all, Lepley holds five individual (55 hurdles and 400 meters indoors, 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles and 400 meters outdoors) and two relay (4x100 outdoor, 4x400 indoor) records at Susquehanna.