Lycoming College

The only two-time all-conference selection in program history in the sport of women's cross country, Michelle Herman is the first woman from the sport to be inducted into the school's hall of fame. Herman picked up second-team all-conference runners in each of her last two years at the school, finishing 18^th at the MAC Championships in 2011 (26:02.10) and 17^th in 2012 (25:19.36). She still holds three of the top five finishes at MAC Championships in program history, as she also took 24^th as a freshman (26:02.08). Her run of 24:14.8 at the 2009 NCAA Mideast Regional set a school record that stood for seven years and her 80^th-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Mideast Regional is still the best finish in program history. The 2012 Sol "Woody" Wolf Award winner as the school's most improved junior athlete, the Altoona, Pa., native is the only runner in program history to finish in top 100 twice at NCAA Mideast Regional. During her career, she notched three top-five finishes, six top-10 finishes and 17 top-25 finishes.
 
After graduating, Herman worked as a field technician for Penn State University on a pair of multi-year research projects before enrolling in graduate school at SUNY-ESF in 2017. She earned a Master of Science in conservation biology, as her research was part of an ongoing hellbender population restoration initiative in the Upper Susquehanna River watershed, where she has worked closely with Dr. Peter Petokas, Lycoming's research associate of biology. Herman, who resides in Central New York, is now a biologist with The Wetland Trust, one of the partners leading the hellbender recovery initiative, where she manages the day-to-day operations of hellbender work, which includes a rearing lab and a restoration site where she monitors released and wild hellbenders. In her free time, Herman has kept running after graduation and now gravitates toward trail challenge events with longer distances, and she has completed events at Hyner View (PA), Breakneck Point (NY), and Mountain Madness (NJ). She is also active in cycling, hiking, backpacking, inline skating, kayaking, cross country skiing and snowshoeing.