Former URI Track Standout Heidi Westerling To Compete For Team USA At The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships

Westerling is a three-time A-10 champion in the 10,000m

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Oct. 9, 2009

KINGSTON, R.I. - Former Rhode Island standout Heidi Westerling will represent the United States at the 18th IAAF World Half Marathon Championship, held on Sunday in Birmingham, England.

Westerling with team with Amy Yoder Begley, Serena Burla, Amy Hastings, and Elva Dryer. This is Westerling's first Team USA appearance. The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships will air on Universalsports.com on Sunday at 4:00am (EST). A total of 47 IAAF Member Federations are set to compete this coming weekend, the highest number since 2004.

A total of $245,000 will be offered in prize money, with $30,000 going to the individual champions and $15,000 to the respective men's and women's team champions. The top finish for a U.S. team at this event came last year in Rio de Janeiro where the Team USA women finished fourth. The best team finish for a U.S. men's team was sixth in both 2005 and 2006.

She is a three-time Atlantic 10 10,000-meter champion and URI school record holder at 3000- and 5000-meters indoors and 5000- and 10,000-meters outdoors, shattered her personal record for the 26.2-mile distance by nearly three minutes to run 2-hours, 41-minutes, 9-seconds. Ranked 65th entering the race, Westerling finished 26th among the 148 women who started the Olympic Trials.

Westerling, an Acworth, N.H. native, shattered her own school record in 2005 at 10,000 meters by almost a minute, running 34:23.32 to finish 18th at the Mount San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Calif. Her 10,000 meter mark was an NCAA Championship provisional qualifying mark. She also finished first in the 10,000 at the 2005 Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track & Field Championship, winning her third individual title in the 10,000 with a time of 37:23.36. Westerling is the first runner in A-10 Championship history to win the 10,000 three times; no other athlete has won the event more than once.

She also finished second in the 5,000 meters at the 2005 Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track & Field Championships, qualified for the NCAA Regional Outdoor Track & Field Championship at 5,000 meters with a time of 16:50.53 and holds the fourth-fastest 1,500 meter time in URI history (4:36.03), which was second-best in the A-10 this season. Westerling was named the 2005 A-10 Women's Outdoor Track & Field Student-Athlete of the Year.

Westerling also claimed runner-up honors at the 2004 Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championships, as well as in both the 3000-meters and 5000-meters at the 2005 Atlantic 10 Indoor Track & Field Championships.

Westerling was named the Rhode Island Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (RIAIAW) Distinguished Student-Athlete and was selected as the recipient of the prestigious Winifred Keaney Award, which recognizes URI's most outstanding graduating female student-athlete who has been a role model in her collegiate career and has maintained a high level of academic standing. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology with teacher certification in May 2004. While an undergraduate, Westerling was on the Dean's List six times and earned a spot on six Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference teams. Westerling is a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma National Honor Society and the Omicron Delta Kappa National Honor Society.