March 6, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist and defending women's champion Deena Kastor (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.), will line up this Saturday, March 8, looking to earn an unprecedented sixth national title at the 2008 USA 15 km Championships in Jacksonville, Fla. 2008 Olympic marathoner Brian Sell (Rochester Hills, Mich.), will face 2000 champion Dan Browne (Portland, Ore.) in the men's race.

Kastor, a five-time USA 15 km Champion will return to Jacksonville to face more than 20 of the top women in the U.S. who will be using this championship as a final test of fitness heading into next month's Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston.

Kastor, who set the current American and USA championship record of 47:15 here in 2003. will be competing for the title against 2006 USA 10 km Champion Katie McGregor (Minneapolis, Minn.), 2004 Olympic Trials Marathon Champion Colleen De Reuck (Boulder, Colo.) and 2007 Pan Am Games 10,000m champion Sara Slattery (Lafayette, Colo.).

Along with Sell and Browne, contenders for the men's and women's titles will include Jason Lehmkuhle (Minneapolis, Minn.), who was runner-up at the USA Half Marathon Championships earlier this year as well as fifth at the men's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in November. Also looking to claim the title will be Lehmkuhle's Team USA Minnesota teammates, Andrew Carlson (Minneapolis, Minn.), and Matt Gabrielson (Minneapolis, Minn.), and Fernando Cabada (Boulder, Colo.), the American Record holder at 25 km.