AUSTINTOWN, Ohio – Otterbein University sophomore Claire Lamb (Granville/Granville) has repeated as Ohio Athletic Conference Runner of the Year in women's cross country, the league office announced Friday morning.

Lamb turned in another standout fall season for the Cardinals, recording three victories to go along with a third, fourth and seven-place finish prior to nationals. She outlasted 124 other runners to win the OAC individual crown, helping the team successfully defend its championship by a narrow margin over John Carroll.

"It's a big enough honor to get this away once, but to repeat is pretty amazing," head coach Dara Ford said of Lamb. "It's difficult to top a freshman season that was as good as hers, but there was certainly no sophomore slump. She keeps getting better and better with every race."

Lamb ran a collegiate-best time of 21:06 at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle and later earned her second All-Great Lakes Region award, crossing fourth in the 232-runner field to qualify for nationals once again.

She turned in the program's best result since 1995 at the NCAA Championships in mid-November finishing 37th out of  280 competitors and missing All-American honors by less than one second. Lamb will now turn her sights to indoor track season, where she was a national qualifier last year in the mile run.